


whisper, writings, warmth.

by るる凪 - nagi (arurun)



Category: Pocket Monsters | Pokemon (Main Video Game Series), Pocket Monsters | Pokemon - All Media Types, Pocket Monsters: Diamond & Pearl & Platinum | Pokemon Diamond Pearl Platinum Versions
Genre: Canon Rewrite, Game and Manga Fusion, Gen, Muteness, Mutism, Novelization, Platonic Relationships, Pokemon Journey, Pokemon Platinum Version, Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder - PTSD, Shinou-chihou | Sinnoh Region (Pokemon), Sign Language, Team as Family, but doesn't matter much, kind of a OC-insert as Lucas
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-10-31
Updated: 2021-02-28
Packaged: 2021-03-09 06:20:54
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 8
Words: 30,184
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/27309820
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/arurun/pseuds/%E3%82%8B%E3%82%8B%E5%87%AA%20-%20nagi
Summary: Lucas remembers playing a game on a console. A game eerily similar to the world he's living in right now. It doesn't change much of what he knows about himself-- but it's jarring all the same.He ventures into the world of Pokemon, knowing full well the calamity that awaits-- but there's little he can do while being incapable of speaking.(It doesn't stop him from trying.)
Relationships: Hikari | Dawn & Jun | Barry & Kouki | Lucas, Jun | Barry & Kouki | Lucas
Comments: 6
Kudos: 51





	1. [So, your name is LUCAS?]

**Author's Note:**

> A Pokemon Platinum novelisation featuring a mute Lucas! I decided to write this because I recently had the urge to download an emulator to play Platinum for the first time in a while. I wasn't planning to publish, but I already have a lot of this story in drafts, so I might as well.
> 
> So, things you might want to know before reading (can skip this if you want): **This story won't deviate from canon's main parts, but things will be shifted around** as characters do not follow the 'you need to gather all badges in the order' rules, and HM routes are not blockages like in the games-- in this story you can just ask a friendly hiker to help you smash that dumb boulder in the way. 
> 
> Another thing of note: **characters are called Lucas/Dawn/Barry as per the game canon, but it is not their real name.** Barry and Dawn are nicknames of what their name actually is (eventually revealed as the story goes on), and Lucas will go by a nickname (Luce) throughout this story to differentiate him from actual canon Lucas. 
> 
> And last but not least: **I won't be giving Lucas the Starly or Shinx line,** because... I feel like every team in every damn playthrough has those two, they're such amazing Pokemon, I digress. But I think I'll touch on underrated/less used Pokemon for his team, and avoid repeats of Pokemon between his and Barry's teams. 
> 
> P.s also he has Chimchar because Chimchar has hands.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> **[ Player defeated PKMN Trainer Barry! ]**

Is strangely enough the last thing he remembers. 

A blink later, a monkey leaps at him. Barry is wailing in despair, and Professor Rowan chuckles at the sight of them. 

Lucas regains his bearings and he’s on the ground, holding a creature slightly away from him in the same way one would hold a wet cat. 

He looks at it and-- it’s a Chimchar, cheering in excitement and clinging happily to its new owner, looking just a little beat up but not at all upset by it. 

... _Huh?_

Lucas turns to look at the Pokemon, then at Barry-- then at Dawn and the Pokemon Professor-- is he seeing this? He rubs his eyes and-- it’s still there, along with the fainted Piplup that Dawn is now using a Potion on.

“Don’t sit there lookin’ so baffled now, Luce. I ain’t losing next time!” 

He stares suspiciously at the hand that’s stretched out for him. Barry frowns slightly down at him, his lips pursed in a pout.

He takes it, and stands up.

And when he looks around-- he falls silent, almost. 

The burst of forestry, the wooden buildings with bush green roofs. The air is fresh here-- fresher than he’s ever breathed in his life. The wind brings with it the chatter of the Kricketot and the gentle humming of the Bidoof.

“What’s with you?” Barry asks, crouching down to pick up-- oh, his hat. When did it fall-- and slotting it clumsily on Lucas’ head. 

Then he raises his right hand and waves his hand before his friend’s face. He does it twice, staring scrutinizingly at Lucas. Then he does it again.

Lucas finally turns right back to attention. Chimchar has run down to Dawn for Potion at this point, so he quickly straightens himself, readjusting his hat. 

Barry sets his third fingers at his chest and gestures outward. The glare on his face hasn’t eased for a second.

Despite never having learned that before, Lucas recognized the signs. 

Sign Language, though he wasn’t sure if it’s American or Japanese or if this world even followed the modern world’s system of languages-- but all that mattered was he recognized them as if he had been using them his entire life. 

Open palm, thumb to his chest, he jabs twice and offers a smile. _I’m fine._

Barry doesn’t look convinced. 

Lucas repeats the sign again.

“Is anything the matter?” Professor Rowan asks. 

“Nope! Thanks so much for the Pokemon, Professor!” Barry grins, “we’ll treasure them!”

And Professor Rowan nods, pleased by the enthusiasm. “Well then. If you have any other enquiries, you two can come and see me at my lab in Sandgem.” 

“Gotcha!” Barry responds.

Lucas tries speaking out an affirmation-- but strangely enough, the voice doesn’t come. It’s as if he’d forgotten how to make sounds, his mouth lays open and his throat doesn’t rumble. Confusedly, he jerks out a nod.

Oh right… he can’t talk.

Wait, he can’t?

Professor Rowan excuses himself, and Dawn follows, making time to wave back at the two boys before she hurries on toward Sandgem, the forgotten suitcase in her hands. 

“Now, you.” 

Barry returns Piplup and Chimchar to their Poke Balls and hands the latter back to Lucas. 

“I’m fining you ten million for lying to me,” Barry says, taking him by the below. “You are _not_ fine. C’mon. We’re going home and I’ve got honey in my fridge.”

Lucas opens his mouth to say something only to remember he had no voice.

His rival catches it immediately, “now don’t talk back or I’m telling your mom. And don’t roll your eyes at me either!” Lucas looks away, almost pouting at the last part. 

Barry drags him away, and he takes the moment to gather his thoughts a little better.

He was playing the game a second ago-- and now, he’s in it. Is this a dream? He had Lucas’ memories and everything-- but the degree of comfort he feels around Barry isn't a lie either-- it’s true friendship and his heart, at least, treasures this. 

But something is off. 

Didn’t Professor Rowan leave _before_ the first battle with Barry? Why were they here, then? And was Barry always such an assertive guy? Sure, he was… pretty assertive, actually, but this didn’t exactly happen in the game.

There’s supposed to be a blackout and timeskip to when the player tells their mom about what happened-- yeah, that probably can’t happen literally here.

For starters, if we’re going to name differences-- this town isn’t just three houses, a road, and a lake. It’s a nice valley with a row of houses here and there, embraced by trees and 

Lucas finds himself sitting in Barry’s house, smiling awkwardly at Barry’s mom. 

He sips nervously on a cup of warm honey tea as Barry himself makes a quick run out to fetch his mother two houses down. They wanted to tell the exciting experience together and Barry was more than happy to be the storyteller.

* * *

Lucas understands quite a bit now.

Firstly, he wasn’t born mute-- that’s a can of worms that opened half a dozen years ago now, and now that it's been five years without any sign of resurgence, they’ve moved on with hopes that it will never show up again. 

His mother is fluent in Sign Language for his sake. So was Barry and his mother.

Secondly, things were already going differently. 

He’s not sure what exactly made Professor Rowan stay to watch their first battle, but because Barry came with him to this point, they had the new Running Shoes, the Town Map, and their journey wishes all at once.

That’s one whole starting event cut out from the Platinum agenda. 

Seeing as his name was Lucas and his mother is his mother, this definitely isn’t the anime universe. Which means that this is the _game_ universe, and now that it’s real, it’s not going to be as cookie-cutter as it usually is.

...so, what now?

“Alright! I’m gonna go pack up! Then we’re gonna get going!” Barry declares, clearly excited. “Luce! Meet me at the tall grass, alright? I’ll fine you if you’re late!”

Ah thank you Barry. Let’s add item number three to the list: Barry seems to vehemently refuse to call him Lucas. 

And while we're on it, let’s add item number four: his name is Lucas and he’s not much of a fan. Well, to begin with, he wasn’t exactly a-- nah, that doesn’t matter now.

‘Luce’ is fine, he guesses. Retains the meaning of the name to match with Dawn, it’s pretty gender-neutral, and Barry already uses it. 

“Lucas? Lucas?” 

He blinks back to attention. His mother chuckles and signs ‘hurry’ with one hand. 

“Barry’s going to come down any second now.”

Ah, right. Signing a curt thank you to the two ladies in the room, he dashes out the door, cradling his hat to his head. 

He makes it back home in a flash, retrieving the travelling bag he’d packed with Barry all those weeks ago when they just couldn’t wait for their birthdays to come and pass.

They’d agreed to start together, after all. So Lucas had waited two extra months for Barry’s birthday so they could take their first step into the tall grass with each other. Today was finally the day and no one could stop Barry now.

The boy known as ‘Lucas’ had been excited, too. Just patient, and he knows how to savour his prizes. And now, even with this new consciousness in his head, he doesn’t mind. 

He thinks he’ll enjoy this adventure until it’s over.

(Because why not, really.)

He snatches up a notepad and a pen too, along with his Journal. He makes sure to write down the first four points of note in his journal before tucking it into his bag, and stuffed the notepad into his pocket.

Then he hooks on his shoes and he’s off.

Barry meets him at the tall grass and he's wearing his scarf, matching with Luce in all but colour. Luce had memories of being self-conscious when he first needed to wear one, but the memories grow fond when Barry, all of seven, angrily demanded he needed to have a scarf to match Luce's. They always had it together, no matter the season, because it was just their thing. 

They wave one final goodbye to their mothers, the last they’ll have in a long while, really, and then, they head off to Route 201.

“Too slow! What took you so long?!” Barry whines at him, though Luce smiles, knowing that Barry really hadn’t waited that long at all. “So anyways, I had this great idea. Listen, OK? Know the lake we always play at? Uh. Rarity?”

 **‘Verity?’** Luce fingerspells the name, signing for ‘truth’ out to remind him of the meaning. 

“Blarity, Smerity, yeah,” he rolls his eyes,“so so so _anyways_ , they always say there’s this legendary Pokemon there! And I was thinking--”

Luce stops him, signing in interruption, **‘catch it?’**

“Yep!” the way Barry just lights up at the correct guess was very... contagiously joyous. “Mom said we should show our appreciation better! I’m sure Prof would be _really_ happy with a pokemon like that!”

Luce chuckles soundlessly at that. 

It’s all very endearing, but, **‘no capture device, Blair.’**

Barry freezes for all of two seconds. Luce has enough time to retrieve his notepad and start writing some things down before Barry goes into a whole scream session of “crap! We don’t have Poke Balls! P-O-K-accent-E BALLS! Luce, can you believe this?”

**‘Yes, Blair, I can.’**

“Awh man,” he straight up sulks, shoulders sagging dramatically, “utter failure. Now what-- I mean, even if we get to Sandgem’s PokeMart we’re currently too flat broke to buy any now.”

**‘We could--’**

“Oh right! Professor Rowan said we could go to him if we needed help. Let’s go ask him for some Poke Balls!”

**‘--ask for allowance--’**

“Yeah! I’m sure he’ll help us if we ask. He did offer. What do you think, Luce?”

**‘...yeah, okay.’**

Barry was always loud and talkative. Almost a little _too_ loud and talkative, because Luce always found it hard to get a word in edgewise. It didn’t matter if he was signing or talking, Barry has the ability to blast right through it. 

It’s annoying at times. But Luce is used to it.

People tended to joke and say that Barry was loud enough for both of them and it really warmed his heart when he thought of it that way. 

“Alright!” Barry yells out like a warcry, and Luce immediately contemplates taking back his thoughts. “Let’s go!”

They step into the tall grass together, their smiles wide on their faces.

* * *

And immediately, there’s a problem.

Chimchar gibbers irritably upon being stopped for the third time in a row. Piplup is already squinting at it-- _him, probably?_ clearly indicating his annoyance.

Luce is flustered.

They make their way into Route 201, and Chimchar goes right ahead without listening to instructions. He takes off charging at every Pokemon in the tall grass and firing off attacks indiscriminately, so full of energy he apparently needed to scream to be at ease. 

“Chimchar, you have to listen to Luce. He’s your trainer now, okay?”

Barry has to do the lecturing for him and Luce is a little… demotivated now. He tries to reign him back in, only to remember he can’t speak-- and he follows up the attempt by trying to call for him again. This is getting embarrassing. 

Piplup had looked eager to dash off too-- but after seeing Chimchar, he adopted a very put off expression and stayed nice and obedient, only acting when told and only gesturing when something needed Barry’s attention.

Well, Piplup is a very patient child. He would really suit Luce more than the impulsive Chimchar… huh? Isn’t Chimchar a perfect fit for Barry?

Chimchar sits down, receiving his third Potion of the day. 

How did they beat Barry in the first battle? Hm, Chimchar probably got a little lucky.

“You need to fight _with_ Luce. Don’t go off on your own,” Barry emphasizes, “look, I’ll show ya. Piplup, let’s go!”

Barry and Piplup find a Bidoof, and the audience sits back to watch. Chimchar sits a clear foot away from Luce, barely even looking at him. 

Maybe somewhere in the back of its mind, he knows that Luce is his trainer. He just doesn’t quite register fully because Luce hasn’t said a single thing to him yet. 

Unlike Barry who has been able to shout out cheers of encouragement and critique at every action from Piplup, Chimchar hasn’t received so much as an introduction from Luce yet. Barry had to do that talking, too.

And Luce is conflicted. He didn't know it would be this hard-- would Chimchar understand if he wrote down instructions?

“Alright Piplup! Start off with a Pound!” 

Piplup yips back affirmatively. Barreling into the Bidoof in one strong crash, Piplup huffs, rolling back into balance. 

“Alright, not yet-- and,” Barry then calls Piplup to back off-- and in time with his call of “Now!” Piplup jumps out of the way of Bidoof’s retaliating Tackle.

Bidoof rams straight into a tree. 

Luce winces at that.

“One last Pound!” Barry commands, and that finishes off the Bidoof.

Thoroughly impressed, Chimchar’s eyes sparkle with excitement as he happily claps at the display. Piplup, seeing the praise, pumps out his chest with pride. 

Barry laughs at that. 

“Now you see? You have to work like that with Luce. You can’t go off on your own,” he patiently tells the Chimchar who nods in response.

Then Chimchar turns to Luce, almost expectantly.

Luce flinches at that. He opens his mouth only to belatedly remember-- again-- that he can’t speak. He doesn’t think the Pokemon would understand sign language, either.

“You see, Chimchar, Luce can’t talk,” Barry says, crouching down. Chimchar looks up, surprised. Barry smiles a little sadly, “I know it’ll be hard for you two, but try to get along, okay?”

Chimchar nods again.

(Well, evidently, Chimchar has started to like Barry more now.)

Luce purses his lips for a conflicted, awkwardly smiling moment. Chimchar looks over, similarly awkward in its movements-- and he breathes in, deciding to just go for it. 

Nervously, he points at himself, and signs his name. Then he gestures toward Chimchar-- and waits, expectant.

Chimchar blinks up at him, confused.

Barry almost says something, but Piplup swats his flippers at him to shush. 

Luce thinks he knows what Piplup is trying to say. So he repeats the sign, and gestures at Chimchar one more time, before eagerly awaiting a response.

Chimchar tilts his head to the side, seemingly taking a long moment to think.

Finally, he beams, and jumps in realization. Raising both arms, he points at Luce and clumsily copies the sign for Luce’s name. 

Then he points at himself-- and grins, “Chimchar!”

Luce never thought he’d be so near tears so soon.

Nodding happily, he claps and smiles-- because that’s the universal language for positivity, approval, and appreciation. 

It’ll be hard to go on without his voice, but if Pokemon can communicate without words, maybe he can make it work, too. Luce just had to take it one step further.

Baby steps.

* * *

“...so you guys spent the entire day teaching Chimchar and Piplup battle strategies?” Professor Rowan asks, exasperated.

Chimchar on his shoulder and Piplup on Barry’s head, the two boys chuckle nervously. They’re beat up, disheveled and messy from their clothes to their hair. Barry’s scarf is murky at the edge, and Luce’s sleeve is soaked in mud. 

Luce's head is bowed low in a sort of apologetic politeness, and Piplup keeps a curious eye on him, not so sure about the meaning of the action. 

The moon was high over their heads and Dawn was already rushing around for the first aid kit, no wait the Potions first-- no, we need to do the laundry!

“Now now, it’s getting late. Maybe you should go home first--”

“No!” the girl snaps, standing upfront and taking bold steps toward the Professor. “If I leave this mess here my mother would be ashamed of me!” 

Barry and Luce look on, wide-eyed in surprise. Professor Rowan raises his arms, denying further involvement in this situation and leaving the boys to the mercy of his aide. 

“Geez, you boys are such _children_!” she says, throwing her arms into the air in defeat. Finally, she declares, “Professor, they’re staying over in the lab tonight. You two!”

Barry and Luce immediately straighten with attention upon being addressed. 

Dawn has her hands on her hips, a frown set on her face. “We need your dirty clothing _now_ if you want to set off on time tomorrow. I’m giving you ten seconds!” she announces, then she starts. “Ten, nine, eight--”

“Y- Y- Yes ma’am!” 

Knowing better than to defy her, Barry salutes affirmatively and grabs his pal on the wrist. Luce follows with a clumsy belated salute, and then he’s dragged off by Barry.

“Your scarves, too!”

“No no, the scarves are fine!” 

One of Professor’s assistants, Ms Roseanne, points them in the right direction and soon enough, two trainers and two Pokemon are huddled up in the large bath, soaking out their exhaustion for the day. 

“Geez, that girl reminds me of my mom,” Barry whines, rolling over to watch Piplup swim lazily around the tub. Chimchar was in his little mini tub to the side, snoring.

Luce reaches over to poke it awake, signing with his free hand.

 **‘She’s nice’** , he chuckles.

“How?!”

**‘She’s helping us out. We’re imposing.’**

And Barry pouts. “Well, you’re right about that,” he mirthfully admits, “but nuh-uh. She’s around our age, right? Don’t you think she acts a little stiff?”

 **‘Stiff?’** Luce asks, his mouth instinctively opening for a moment-- so he signs out ‘what do you mean’ like one would ask the definition, indicating for him to elaborate. 

“More, well,” Barry grumbles, glancing at Piplup for a second, “like she isn’t our age.”

**‘So, more mature? Like she’s older than us?’**

“No, I mean-- yes? She’s a total nag! Like my mom-- yeah. Ugh,” he grimaces, curling into his arms at the edge of the tub, “I can’t think straight in here. I’m getting out.”

Knowing full well he’s just avoiding the question and denying any compliments he nearly gave the girl, Luce breathes out a choky string of silent laughter. 

* * *

“If you two need any help, my room is upstairs, and Dawn’s house is just down the street,” Professor Rowan tells them. “Have a good night’s rest, you two.”

“Okay, Professor!” Barry says, “thanks for letting us stay over.”

There was just a small, lifted tatami area to the right of the research lab, presumably to serve guests. In the closets, Luce found spare futons, which the assistants probably used when they had a long night to go.

Their scarves were put in the wash, so after a bit of consideration, Barry got out an old-fashioned shawl for Luce to borrow. 

Luce thought it was funny that he even brought it out of the house, but he’s glad that he’s got a spare to cover up with. Maybe he’ll buy a spare scarf when he gets enough money, so he won’t have to deal with this again. 

Piplup and Chimchar were already sound asleep by their Pokemon beds, and Barry was still looking miserably at his Journal on the table.

“There’s not much to write today,” he says, closing his book. “You done yet, Luce?”

Luce shakes his head. Unlike Barry, he has a lot to think about and a lot to digest. His Journal was a little more than an adventure log, and they both understood that.

(Including the fact that he’s here in the first place.)

Barry peeks over. Luce is honestly thankful for the fact that he’s writing in his old native language instead of English, because Barry squints at it and mutters, “not your mysterious secret language again”, and turns away with a yawn.

Which brings about the other question. 

Luce had a secret language before he was taken over by this new soul? That doesn’t make sense. Because he’s remembered everything about Lucas thus far, and the only ‘secret language’ that comes up in his mind is this one he’s using now.

So is he Luce with a soul possessing him, or is he Luce who has died and reincarnated and just remembered his past life?

(It’s all too annoying to think about, so let’s ignore it.)

He pens it down.

**_[It doesn’t change much, so I’ll forget it. I don’t remember much about the other world, anyways-- only that it existed. My name is Luce now, and I’ll just go on a journey to be a Pokemon Trainer, because Lucas’ dream is still alive in my heart.]_ **

It’s very trippy, to suddenly not be able to speak-- but for some reason, he’s not panicking. Maybe his memories as Lucas is calming him down. It’s still embarrassing when he opens his mouth and can’t speak, though. He’ll have to adapt. 

He switches back to English and begins to write down his day.

“I’m going to bed first. Don’t sleep too late.”

**‘Pot, kettle.’**

“I’m fining you ten million for hurting my feelings.”


	2. [LUCE obtained the Pokedex!]

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Not being able to talk is a lot tougher than Luce expected. Luckily, Chimchar is a very enthusiastic learner.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Luce wakes up to a gentle prodding on his hand.

Looking to the side, his eyes meet Chimchar's, catching the monkey right in the middle of squishing his palms. Chimchar squeaks in surprise, jumping out of the way, his tail flame lighting back up. Quickly extinguishing the flame, he ducked back under the covers.

Luce lets out a quiet laugh.

Then he points at the veranda. Chimchar catches what it means and nods.

He's slept with the shawl around him, so he adjusts it, making sure it fully over his neck, before making his way over.

They sit side by side, watching dawn break in from the sky. Luce sets a hand on his chin and gestures outward. Right hand on his left elbow, he brings his left hand up.

Clumsily, and with the wrong hand, Chimchar imitates him.

So Luce does it again.

Bit by bit, they learn new words. With the help of his little notepad and a lot of emotive gesturing, Chimchar memorizes signs. From Barry's name, to everything around the garden, to Chimchar and Piplup and casual greetings.

Chimchar knew how to sing the alphabet song too, though he could also say it in intones of his name. He'd probably learned it from a child in town, or something. Luce teaches him how to sign the letters anyways.

It's nearly eight in the morning when Barry comes in with a loud yawn.

"Woah, Chimchar's one quick learner," he says, crouching down beside it. "Do you understand a thing you've just done, boy?"

Chimchar cheers proudly, one hand raised in the sign nickname Luce had chosen for him, the other hand pointed at himself.

"Ooh, you got yourself a sign nickname. That's nice. Luce picked mine too," Barry says. Then he signs **'good morning'** , and Chimchar, with all the excitement in his little tiny body, signs right back.

It's nice that Chimchar has a full set of five fingers.

"Are you two teaching Chimchar sign language?"

They turn to the wall to find Dawn looking over, two paper bags in her hands and her features set in a pleasant surprise.

"Morning!" Barry calls, and Luce signs similarly in greeting. Chimchar eagerly follows.

Dawn unlocks the latch on the gate, making her way in. "Good morning to you too," she greets them. "Your clothes are washed and dried. I brought them over first thing."

"They're already dry? That's quick!"

"Yeah, I have a dryer in my house. We don't exactly have a lot of spare lab coats, after all. Here you go," she says with an almost bashful grin, handing the paper bags to the boys, who inspect the contents in muted amazement.

They were still warm.

Luce signs out a word of gratitude.

"Is that 'thank you'?" Dawn asks. She sits down beside them on the veranda, lifting her skirt against the ground so it wouldn't crease. "Hey, I want to learn some too!"

Chimchar raises his proud hand with his sign name.

"Learn in your own time," Barry sneers, mostly just to be nasty. "We're gonna set off for Jubilife today! We can't waste anymore time here."

"Stingy!" Dawn sticks a tongue out at him taking Luce's sleeve, "I'm not asking _you_ and Luce didn't say no. How about you go on your own, if you're in _such_ a hurry?"

Luce blushes a little, belatedly realizing Dawn was calling him _Luce_ without any prior prompting. Perhaps she had picked it up from Barry, or maybe she just never heard his name before now and assumed it was Luce to begin with.

Barry cringes. "You're still holding a grudge on that time I crashed into you?!"

 **'Blair crashes into everyone all the time,'** Luce signs, knowing full well that Dawn couldn't understand it. It's mostly to spite Barry, so he reckons it's fine.

"No I do not!" Barry swirls around in denial.

He feigns a hurt expression. **'So it's just me you always crash into?'**

"No!" Barry snaps again, and this time, his face heats up, "you're just- because-- ugh! Always there! Yeah, you're just! It's a coincidence. Yeah."

"You're barely making sense," Dawn informs him. She sighs, not quite understanding the conversation going on but very amused nonetheless.

Chimchar seems to share her sentiments, as he snickers at the side.

 **'He rarely makes sense,'** Luce smirks at him.

"Now you're just being mean!" Barry whines. Chimchar giggles at the scene, and Barry grinds his teeth at him, offended.

"Is this 'Barry'?" Dawn asks, repeating the sign for Barry's name.

Luce nods.

"You're doing it wrong, it's more like--" Barry signs it properly, "a sharp downward! Yes it matters. And the direction matters too. And how high your arm goes."

Dawn makes a disgruntled face, trying again, "so like, this?"

"Your face matters too!"

"You're kidding!"

"I ain't!"

"Geez, can I learn something else?"

Luce laughs, and Chimchar looks on, confused. Piplup dozingly wakes up, tottering over before knocking himself awake on Barry's ankle.

"This is _Luce_ ," Barry signs, "and-- you really oughta start from the alphabets, though. They don't take long."

"Oh! Luce is easy. How do you sign my name?"

"Gee I don't know, what _is_ your name?" Barry asks, rolling his eyes.

Luce realizes abruptly that she has never introduced herself. He'd called her Dawn this whole time, following the game format-- but what if that isn't her name? That would've been really awkward.

_(So Barry only knows Dawn as 'the girl that follows Professor Rowan around' for now, right? He needs to get human relations down carefully in case he misspeaks.)_

"Oh! Right, I forgot," the girl chuckles, blushing slightly, "please, call me Dawn. My dad is the senior lab assistant, and I'm Professor Rowan's field assistant."

(Oh, her name _is_ Dawn. That's a relief.)

"Okay, Dawn. I'm Barry, this is Luce," he introduces himself, talking and signing at the same time, sounding in the middle ground of tired and exasperated. "And, you can choose your own sign name."

"Really?!"

"Unless you want to fingerspell everything."

"It's called fingerspelling?"

Chimchar jumps up at that, excitedly waving his hands to get their attention. When all eyes are on him, Luce claps for the beat and Chimchar begins to sing his little choppy alphabet song, miming the letters clumsily but to some degree, accurately.

Dawn and Barry hum along, and at the end of it, Chimchar looks up eagerly for validation. His eyes are even sparkling in excitement.

Luce nods. Dawn is clapping, and Barry chuckles at it.

Chimchar does a whole victory dance.

Piplup rolls his eyes, and they chuckle at the sight. Chimchar, offended, pounces on the penguin. Dawn eventually lets out Turtwig, who stands between them as a buffer for their battle.

It seems to have been a normal occurrence even before meeting their trainers, so Turtwig just looks defeated as Chimchar tries to climb over him to get to Piplup.

(Turtwig stops walking and Chimchar falls. Piplup smirks. Chimchar starts crying.)

"C'mon, let's clean up. We can make breakfast while we're at it."

-

Professor Rowan wakes up to three children homely setting up breakfast at his tea room. The futon have been kept, the soup is warm, and Chimchar is apparently addicted to the alphabet song.

Dawn sets down the omelettes just as Barry and Luce emerge from the side, dressed back in their travelling clothes, though Luce's cap was nowhere to be seen yet. Luce has his scarf right back on, and Barry has it in his arm.

**_[Good morning, Professor_ **.]

He's surprised to see the words written in the notepad before him. He looks back to find Barry angrily signing 'good morning' at Dawn, and Dawn imitating it quickly, only to find out she was using the wrong hand.

"Good morning, you three," Professor Rowan says. "Seems like you've had an eventful morning."

Luce grins. He flips the notepad to the next page-- and hands it to the professor.

A string of writing had been pre-written.

**_[We actually came here to ask for Poke Balls, but Blair's forgotten about it_ **.]

"Blair?" he inquires.

"You mean Barry," the person in question corrects, and Luce jolts, not so sure when he'd escaped his conversation with Dawn to come beside him. But Barry, a little annoyed, is all in his face now. "Luce, I don't care what you sign, but it's definitely easier to _write_ Barry! No excuses for that one!"

Luce looks away with a nervous laugh, signing **'okay, okay, my bad'** hastily.

Professor Rowan dismisses the interaction and continues reading. These two sure were a pair of close-knitted friends, He's sort of envious.

**_[We heard there was a legendary Pokemon in Lake Verity, so we wanted to catch it for you-- but then again, Blair's forgotten that too.]_ **

**_[Regardless, we want to sincerely thank you for the Pokemon you've given us, and our mothers have extended their gratitude as well.]_ **

Luce really sounds a lot more sophisticated in writing, but then again, it's not like Rowan's ever heard the kid speak a sentence otherwise.

Professor Rowan steals a glance at the Pokemon. Chimchar was showing Luce an awkward sign for the letter E, and Luce crouches down to fix it, mouthing the letter as they try it again.

Piplup sits down patiently, receiving a Poffin from Dawn. Rowan doesn't miss the way its eyes would turn periodically toward Barry, just to make sure he was still nearby. And when Piplup finally received the fresh Poffin, Piplup would take it between its flippers, nod its head in thanks, and totter toward Barry, tail touching his ankle.

"You're very welcome," he says instead. "I'm... astonished, if I must admit. You two seem to already have a good bond with your Pokemon, and I've only given them to you yesterday. It's amazing."

Chimchar and Barry grin at that, a little bashful at the perceived praise. Piplup turns away with a huff-- though that little pleased blush is not lost on him. Luce reaches over to pat him on the head, though Luce can't deny that he's trying to hide his own flattered smile from being seen.

This makes Rowan hum in thought.

"With all that said, I think I can entrust you two with something very special."

Dawn gasps at that, and Rowan makes his way toward the lab, gesturing for the trio to follow him. He opens a secure cabinet and retrieves two sealed boxes of something that's evidently very, very precious cargo.

"This is a Pokedex," he says, pushing the two boxes toward the two boys. "It's a Pokemon encyclopedia that can acquire information on Pokemon all around Sinnoh-- I want you two to take it on your journey."

-

Luce opens the box carefully, cradling the smooth blue surface with a sort of muted admiration. He holds it with both hands, absorbed in its pristine coating.

He's been waiting for this. Get the Pokedex, go through the capture tutorial, and then the game begins-- classic stuff, really. He was beginning to become worried if he'd get it in the first place, but it seems the law of the main character still applies.

His first impression? It feels like a brand new DS.

We all know how amazing that feels.

Barry opens his box, and unlike Luce's, it's got an orange casing. Luce briefly stews on the thought-- Pokedexes were always red or pink in the game displays and the anime, so why were there three different colours now? And his is _blue_ , no less.

_(Ah, wasn't Dawn's pokedex pink in the anime?)_

"I've ordered three of these, so Dawn is in charge of the last one," Rowan explains, "the three of you will do a great job for me, won't you?"

Dawn holds up a dull red Pokedex with a smile. "Of course, Professor."

_(Oh, it's not pink. So the colouring follows the... manga, right?)_

"You bet!" Barry says, an arm slinging around Luce's, "oh man, now we've got _more_ to thank you for! I can't believe this."

Rowan laughs, "if you're so grateful, go fill it up for me, would you?"

"Yes, sir!"

Dawn shows them how to open it, registering their fingerprints in the main menu so the device would acknowledge them as the proper owner.

They first scanned the three starter Pokemon at their side, delightedly noticing how their descriptions matched up with their personalities thus far.

The most impressive feature for now though, was this.

" _Scratch,_ " came the robotically synthesized female voice. It was stoic and slightly over pronounced, but still clear. Just like a GPS voice system.

The Pokedex could _talk_.

" _Piplup_ " Barry's Pokedex reads it out.

"This is so cool," Barry says, pressing it just to hear it again. "It'll even read out the description. Are you hearing this Luce?"

Piplup looks on from Barry's pant leg, interested. Chimchar has clambered up to Luce's shoulder at this point, peeking over at both Pokedexes with great interest.

Luce presses the button to read _'Scratch'_ again. Then again. And again.

"Uhm, Luce?" Barry turns to him, waving to get his attention but Luce isn't responding. It's as if he's been sucked into the Pokedex, listening to the words coming out of the Pokedex's integrated voice system.

Then Luce starts crying.

Chimchar is first to notice, and he gibbers, absolutely flustered. He tries tugging at Luce's hair to his clothes to generally patting him on the face, but it doesn't work much.

"Crap!" Barry squawks at the sight, nearly dropping his Pokedex. He swirls around, setting the Pokedex on the table before reaching out for the boy-- but then again, he didn't know how to fix it. "Uh-- crap!"

Dawn freaks out, "Professor!" she turns to the man, eyeing him in a way that just expected something out of him.

And Professor Rowan panics too. "What am I supposed to do?!"

-

It took him a while to calm down, but once he stopped crying, he began to cheerfully play around with the attack names, letting Chimchar test out the commands in that way.

"I had a feeling he'd be happy about it, but I didn't expect _that_ ," Barry gestures vaguely at him, indicating the previous horror.

"It'll certainly be very helpful for him," Dawn says, Turtwig asleep on her lap.

Professor Rowan sighs, coming from upstairs. "I'm glad to see you've cheered up now," he says, looking toward Luce as the boy gave him a bashful smile, "so before you leave, take these."

And he hands them a CD each, wrapped in protective casings.

"Technical Machine 27, Return," he explains. "It's a Pokemon move that increases in power depending on how much friendship your Pokemon feels toward you. Be careful with those, they break easily."

"You know how to use them, right?" Dawn asks. She turns a little to the side and mutters, almost inaudibly, "he had TMs? What next, is he going to say he was a trainer when he was young?"

"Of course we know how to use them!" Barry says.

Luce, pointedly, does not know how to use these things. They were like the number one point of confusion for every generation, especially with the inconsistent depictions that ran from belts and boxes to bangles and scrolls.

Or maybe Luce just wasn't knowledgeable enough in Pokemon lore. Unfortunately he isn't a nerd, but hey. Pokemon journey-- he's happy enough. 

(Either way, he's just going to tuck this in his bag and pretend he knows. Since it's a CD, he reckons he can play it on a TV somewhere.)

"And, before I forget," Rowan puts a sack on the table. "Twenty Poke Balls. You needed them, didn't you? So share them equally."

Barry pounces on it, making a sound of pure joy. "You're the best, Professor! I love you!"

Luce makes his way over as well, admiring the pile of Poke Balls that Barry is counting out and shoving into their bags. He signs a quick word of thanks to the Professor as well, and the Professor hums contentedly.

"Alright!" Barry says, tossing his scarf on and hooking up his bag in one smooth motion. Piplup hops to its feet with attention, making its way to his side. "Adventure, here I come. Enough interruptions, on to Jubilife I go!"

"You're already leaving?" Dawn says, sounding just a little disappointed, "so impatient."

"Adventure can't wait any longer, Dawn!" Barry retorts. He turns to Luce and grins. "See you in Jubilife if you catch up, Luce."

Piplup nods its head at the three other occupants of the room, a greeting that could mean thank you and good bye, or both.

Luce sets his hands into two Ks and taps it on top of each other. He smiles when Chimchar happily imitates it.

**'Stay safe.'**

Barry salutes a **'see you later'** in response, and he's out the door with Piplup right beside him.

He's in and out like a whirlwind, and the silence that permeates the lab after he's gone is almost strangely awkward. Talk about losing the only life of the party, a room without Barry gets about ten times quieter.

 **'I'll be going too, then,'** Luce signs, **'thank you very much for all the help.'**

Chimchar dashes up to his shoulder, Luce's hat on his little monkey head and chirping in excitement. Luce nods one last time at the two in the room before excusing himself to the start of his journey.

-

Frankly, it's a nightmare.

Chimchar may be able to listen to fighting instructions with the Pokedex voiceover system, but specific instructions like 'dodge there' or 'aim higher' just couldn't translate. The Pokedex, after all, wasn't Google Translate or Siri or anything like that-- it only said words that were already available.

And mirthfully enough, game-styled Pokemon battles just weren't realistic.

Luce couldn't spam the attack moves and hoped for HP to last-- first of all , there were no telling HP bars, and more attacks missed than hit simply because Bidoofs and especially Starly all knew how to dodge.

So after dropping by the PokeCenter twice, Luce decides to sit down and change tactics.

He can't speak-- which is an awful setup to begin with. 

He can try and sign, but no matter how fluent Chimchar gets with it, he can't afford to keep looking back during battle for instructions-- they had managed to do it when Barry was around, but that was because Chimchar felt at ease fighting with Piplup guarding his back.

So the conclusion is that sound, in some form, is still necessary. Whether with the voice synthesizer or an instrument of some sort.

He has no ideas of anything conventional to go for.

"What's wrong?"

He jolts when Nurse Joy approaches him, tenderly handing back Chimchar's Poke Ball. It's fresh from the Healing machine, slightly warm and Chimchar eager to get out again. Luce presses the button and Chimchar climbs onto his shoulder.

Luce retrieves his notepad, beginning to write.

**_[I'm mute, so it's difficult for Chimchar to listen to my instructions when we train.]_ **

Nurse Joy hums at that, seriously taking her time to consider it.

"Really?" she asks, as if it needed to be clarified. She looks between Chimchar and Luce, almost disbelieving, "you two seem very close knit, so I figured there was a nice layer of understanding between you two."

That's a strange way to put it.

Sure, Chimchar is quite clingy, rather cheerful, and generally very eager to learn signs if it meant Luce would praise him for the effort. But the understanding only goes as far as conversations and anything outside of battles.

Chimchar seeks Luce out for companionship, but even Chimchar should instinctively know by now that Luce is not quite as reliable a partner during battles. Luce could easily see Barry on that pedestal of trust, but Luce just didn't fit the bill.

"Maybe you two should talk it out," Nurse Joy suggests. "Sometimes, a little heart-to-heart is all a pair of friends need to sort out their differences."

Luce looks at Chimchar.

She probably said it out of no ill intent, but _talking_ is a lot harder when one side of the conversation has no voice.

But then again... one side of the conversation never had the right words-- yet, communication was never a problem between Pokemon and trainers all over the world.

There has to be something else.

Something else that gives them _trust_.

Giving one curious look toward Chimchar-- who looks back with a similar light in his eyes-- he stands up, bows in gratitude to Nurse Joy, and sets off toward Route 202 again.

-

He takes inspiration from real life.

Sitting down on a stone with Chimchar in front of him, he sets his hand together before him. Chimchar has understood routine by now, imitating him almost immediately.

Luce prompts a high five on the left. 

Chimchar claps it, and Luce brings his hands back together before prompting a high five on the right. The clapping game quickly continued, quickening in its pace.

Out of nowhere, Luce brings his hand down in a chop on the Pokemon's head.

Chimchar squeaks in surprise. Recovering quickly, because it was a hard hit or anything, he whines at Luce.

Luce chuckles, and prompts for the game to begin again.

This time, two claps into the sequence, Chimchar leaps, and lashes out a hand to smack down sharply at Luce's head. Luce winces, though it really didn't hurt. Chimchar huffs angrily, looking really darn satisfied with itself.

So Luce prompts for round three, and Chimchar grins, more than ready to go at it again.

This time, right before his strikes, Luce clicks his tongue. Chimchar's distracted by that sound for half a moment-- which results in a failure to dodge.

A flick to the forehead later, Chimchar lunges forward for his own strike. Luce leans back a little, letting it scrape his nose just a little, not enough to hurt

Chimchar blinks up at him, confused.

Luce clicks his tongue again-- and pokes Chimchar in the forehead, knocking him back a surprised step.

He snaps his fingers this time-- the sound is similar, a sharp clear sound. And Chimchar pounces on him, a sticky monkey hand landing squarely on his face.

Their eyes are fully on each other, a sort of struggling comprehension finally giving way to recognition. Luce finds the edges of his lips curving upwards as he snaps his fingers one more time.

Chimchar lifts his hand from Luce's face-- and slaps gently, one more time.

And Luce nods.

-

Luce teaches Chimchar the signs for Scratch and Leer, then they tested it out again.

He signs 'Scratch' when they spot a Starly. Chimchar nods at him, and he stands with attention as the Starly gets up from its perch, realizing it's taunting for a battle.

_Tap, tap, tap, tap._

He keeps his hands at a steady rhythm at his side, like an improvised metronome.

And Chimchar focuses on the battle. He stalls, letting the Starly come close. One _snap_ of the fingers, and Chimchar swerves aside from a Tackle.

Starly swirls back to balance with its wings, regaining its bearings while lifting just a little off the ground. He spins back around. Luce _snaps_ his fingers. Chimchar leaps aside just in time to dodge another Tackle.

He then lingers, listening to the persisting, barely audible taps in the air.

The Starly scrapes the ground in its missed trail, but rolls back up-- when Luce interrupts the rhythm one more time, Chimchar doesn't think twice.

He lunges forward, and lands a clean, critical strike.

Starly coughs, thrown back from the pain. It staggers for two steps back before falling into a defeated heap.

They won.

And Chimchar looks back toward Luce.

Luce lifts his head, not quite noticing he's stopped tapping. He has another second to bask in the surprise before Chimchar grins up toothily at him and raises a thumbs up.

Luce runs up to Chimchar and gathers it up in his arms. Chimchar's delighted chitter reaches his ears, but Luce can't help but hug tighter.

They continue training, just like that.

Each battle gets easier as the signals and signs get easier to catch and time. There are trips here and there, but they work through it, dash back to the Center, and go for it again.

The sun is nearly over the horizon when they reach the end of the trail to Jubilife City.


	3. [Ding-ding! You're absolutely correct!]

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Jubilife City and all the shenanigans that come with the city.
> 
> Bad people, good people, and well, Barry.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> The Poke Mart employee scoffs distastefully when Luce hands him a piece of paper containing a shopping list in lieu of ordering over the counter.

Luce finds himself, looking away uncomfortably as he regrets coming into the store.

(In an incredibly sociable world like this, conversation drives every interaction instead of gestures and habits. Luce never expected that the first thing they would frown upon is a person's desire to _not_ talk.)

(In the real world-- or the _old_ world-- people conversed in shops with gestures and habits and general mannerisms. Words in interaction were barely needed sometimes, but that just wasn't social norm in this world-- it was actually _very rude_ here.)

(Introverts sure have it hard in this world...)

The least the shopkeepers expect is a polite greeting and prompt requests-- being handed a note and indirectly ordered to fetch a list of items is frankly... impolite. Sure, it's their job, but it still isn't the most courteous thing to do. 

In this world, you respect all workers, after all.

(Huh? That should be the norm in the other world as well, so why doesn't he feel that way internally? Is it because they worked in retail?)

He's left Chimchar at the Pokemon Center, opting to leave him there overnight. He just needed to fetch Potions and some other status healing items, that was all.

Maybe he could come back tomorrow. He didn't want to--

"Here it is," the shopkeeper's sharp tone cut in, a sack of products laid on the counter. "Your total comes up to 2,700 Poke."

And oh no.

_Oh no._

His heart sinks in a sudden, heart-rendering panic and he suddenly realizes-- are the prices here seem to be higher than the prices in Sandgem? That makes sense-- this is a city, after all. Things are pricier here.

And that was bad. Very bad.

Because even if he scraped together all he had, that was still a bare 2,400 Pokedollars at most. He should've asked the prices first. Why didn't he ask for the prices first?

His heart beats louder, faster, and it becomes harder to breathe, especially with the weird looks the guy behind him in line is giving him. So he scrambles-- scrambles, because his hands are shaking.

His mouth opens and closes and tries and-- he finds his pen, desperately scribblin out the words-- but this is bad. Is it written too messily? Should he rewrite it?

"Sir, you're kind of holding up the line."

He jumps, and his mind goes completely blank. There are almost panicked tears in his eyes at this point, he's stuck to the ground, and his breath is stuck in his throat.

He tries to apologise-- but like a nail in the coffin-- his voice just doesn't come.

_(Oh.)_

_(Oh right, I can't speak.)_

_(I forgot again, did I?)_

Luce feels his entire being fall into silence-- no, it has always been silent. He's just suddenly-- hyper aware of this little detail, that's it. Nothing to be dramatic about.

He doesn't breathe yet.

He looks away, and raises the note in his hands, pretending his hand isn't shaking, grasping the edges of the notepad tightly.

It takes a moment for the shopkeeper to lean over the counter to read it well, but when he does, he lets out a deep, very inconvenienced sigh.

"Alright then, I'll remove a Potion from this. Your total is 2,400 Poke."

Almost shamefully, Luce tucks his note back into his pocket, pays, gathers his items-- and rushes out of the store with his head hung down, too scared to even look at anyone else in the store.

He definitely wasn't going to come back to this store again if he could help it.

* * *

He makes a beeline to the Center-- or he was supposed to, at least. He crashes into a figure, and the man-- a stout older man-- tumbles forward with a surprised yelp.

Luce drops his Potions in surprise.

"Who in the name of--!!" the old man swirls back around and he's angry. He's very angry, of course.

Luce is signing to apologize but a part of him thinks he ought to write it down instead.

"You!" Luce jolts at the loud volume-- freezing up like a deer in headlights when the man points at him. "Watch where you're going, young man!"

And Luce bows, as apologetically as he can physically express. 

The old man launches into a mutter of how hasty children have gotten in this day and age, can't they think of the people in the crowd, what if he hurt himself? And this was already the second time today, his leg hurts now--

Huh? His... _second_ time?

_[I'm really sorry.]_

He shows the note and it suddenly feels dumb. Why would he write for something so easily expressed without words?

The man looks at him, and then breathes out with a, not disappointed, but resigned sigh.

"Just don't do it again, alright?" he says, crouching down to pick up the fallen plastic bag, "goodness, all your things are scattered. And this one is scratched up!"

Luce finds himself nodding defeatedly, gathering his things back into his bag, clumsily maneuvering his notepad in his hand while he worked on it. He already knew some of them were scratched up, even when he first got them-- but they still worked and that was enough for him.

"You know, you would really do well with a Poketch."

Luce pauses, looking up with a confused blink in his eyes.

The man sets his hand on his hips with a frown. "Now, don't tell me you've never heard of the Poketch. Y'know, the Pokemon Watch? Latest fad in Sinnoh?"

Luce keeps his notepad up, still on the writings of _'_ _I'm really sorry_ _'_ at him.

And the man gawks in a highly offended manner.

"That is ludicrous!" he says, dramatically in all the ways that he really didn't need to be. He grabs Luce by the wrist-- Luce squeaks soundlessly as he gets dragged forward-- "that must be fixed. Come here!"

Clutching almost fearfully at his bag of Potions, he's taken across the Center to the back, where they stop before a stout man in a pierrot costume.

"Oh! Chairman," the pierrot addresses the man, quickly turning around to politely greet the-- the chairman?! "And is this a new customer? Well, come right up, time for a quiz!"

The. _The chairman_ , Luce realizes, finally, that this is the chairman guy that's supposed to give you the Pokemon Watch once you enter Jubilife.

And now he's about to take the Poketch quiz, just like the game goes.

Luce glances at the Chairman, who grins at him as he churns out a proper explanation of what's about to happen, from his identity as the creator of the Poketch to the quiz campaign that wins you a free watch if you complete it.

All the while, the pierrot is spinning cheerfully, preparing his tools.

"I'm a Poketch Campaign Clown! Let's roll out my question," he dances on the spot with his little spinny shoes, "ready or not, now here you have it!"

Luce has no idea how he got into this situation, but the question comes and he reaches for his notepad, rushing to write down his answers. When he lifts his head to the warm, he's met with the friendly smiles of the Chairman and the campaign clown.

"Ding-ding! You're absolutely correct!"

The cheerful little Pokemon trivia is given with an infectious energy, and Luce nods as he says it. The Pierrot hands him a coupon, and the chairman takes him by the arm again and they go off to find the next clown.

They patiently wait for him to get his answers out, and never once give him a weird or impatient look for his actions.

"And there we have it! A brand new Poketch, and we just got ourselves the new shipment, so this is fresh from the factory!"

It just feels so right around his wrist, probably because he wore one-- a normal watch-- on a daily basis in the real world.

The chairman grins, and Luce can't help but smile back, bowing in gratitude.

"Now, look here," the chairman turns his attention to the Poketch, clicking around a few buttons until he reaches the Memo Pad app. "This is what I want to show you the most. Don't you think it's quicker to write it here than your notepad?"

And yes. Yes it is.

"You can use any uncapped pen on it if you don't have a stylus."

He actually _does_ have a stylus. Most Sinnoh devices are made with them, after all. 

Luce has one that comes with the Pokedex, mainly for situations where you would have to use gloves-- and Professor Rowan had them commissioned because Sinnoh winters were harsher than the regions Professor Oak, his partner in creation, was used to.

He writes _'Thank you very much'_ on it, and he's happy.

This is a good gift. He'll probably still need the notepad for longer notes, but this is much more convenient when he needs to be quick and precise.

_'This is an amazing gift. I appreciate it.'_

"Don't sweat it!" the chairman grins, "now keep that smile on your face, alright? You're basically advertising us, so no Poketch wearer's gonna have such a gloomy look on them!"

And Luce chuckles at that.

This encounter has definitely, most definitely, cheered him up.

* * *

The Pokemon Center doors slide open and Barry is running forward, looking over, suddenly realizing his road isn't clear and yelping a panicked "get away please!!"-- and Luce only has enough reaction time to squeeze his eyes shut.

They go toppling right out in a painful heap, forehead to forehead and limbs pretty much everywhere inconvenient and painful.

"Oh hey, Luce!" Barry lands on his hands and knees, gleefully taking notice of the person beneath him. Luce's head is spinning as he lays on his back, and if one of those Potions weren't broken they certainly are now. Barry grins, "fancy meeting you here. So that Chimchar inside _is_ yours!"

Barry hops up quickly, helping Luce up like the previous three hundred times he's crashed into Luce in his life.

Luce sighs, checking his Poketch. There is a scratch now and he's upset.

"Oh, you got one too!" Barry says, showing off the orange one around his wrist. "Huh? Why's mine red?"

'It's actually orange,' Luce signs.

"Ohh," Barry says, evidently disinterested in the precise colour of his Poketch, "whatever then. Are you staying the night here? And you dropped your potions," he scoops them off the floor to inspect them, frowning a bit at the scratched-up ones.

'Yes,' Luce simply responds, 'you should too.'

"Yeah, I will!" Barry assures him, tying up the plastic bag and slinging it over an arm, Then, with the smile of a totally innocent young man, he raises his hand in a curt _bye,_ "just give me a second, alright? Admiral and Sergeant are back there with your little spitfire, so watch over them. Be right back."

He spins right around and the Center doors close as he leaves.

Luce recovers from his surprise when the door opens again-- and unsurprisingly, Barry's already run off somewhere too far to see.

_Where is he... going?_

_And why is he taking my Potions with him?_

Luce finds himself sighing again, but this time, there's a hint of content in his breath, paired with sheer bewilderment.

Just a little, he chuckles at the 'little spitfire' part. Now wasn't that just a perfect name?

Barry's always been one whirlwind after another, being here in one moment and out the next. So he really doesn't mind being stuck on the baffled side of things, because Barry's always been impulsive and at his own pace, and he's glad that hasn't changed.

_Now, who on earth is Admiral and Sergeant?_

Only one way to find out, so he heads toward the recovery room with a smile he can't quite suppress on his face.

Chimchar greets him happily once he enters, closely followed by a familiar-looking Piplup. Luce lets Chimchar hop up to his shoulder, and Piplup bows in the one, very recognisable way this Pokemon has learned to greet. Luce smiles and nods back.

(He's in love. Piplup is actually imitating his manners.)

(If that's isn't cute, he doesn't know _what_ is.)

He guesses that Barry nicknamed his Piplup along the road. Which probably means that Barry's gotten himself another Pokemon-- and he's proven right when Piplup leads him to the bench, where he finds a regal little Starly in a roosting position.

The Starly, Luce guesses it's a male too, pries one eye open to consider Luce, and turns back around to seemingly take a nap.

Luce looks over Piplup and Starly. He reckons Piplup is Admiral and Starly is Sergeant, though that's just a guess from the typing combinations. Barry's always been strangely interested in military titles from his father's weird books.

Luce signs hello to him, and once again, Chimchar happily imitates, even saying something that Luce assumes is him explaining what it means to the disinterested Starly.

He spends the rest of the time practicing the alphabets with Chimchar-- to the curious looks of a Machop and Shinx by their side. Luce tries a couple of times before he manages to get the Machop to follow along too, to the pleasant surprise of the trainer when she comes back to retrieve it.

If there's anything a Pokemon fan really wishes for in their lives, it would definitely be the adorable interaction potential Pokemon as a species could provide. 

And Luce was honestly really satisfied by what he's gotten thus far.

* * *

(He barely remembers anything about the real world, and it's slowly fading away, as if the entire thought process had been a dream. It doesn't stick, and he'll eventually forget he even had such a dream.)

But one thing, he remembers clearly.

He knows the gym leaders of this region, the general structure of the cities, and the potential Pokemon encountered on each route, as well as the calamity that's bound to happen in a couple months.

(He can't ignore the memories, but they're unobtrusive on a daily basis and he respects Lucas' wishes among everything else. He feels closer to Lucas than... the other person he once was... and Barry evidently hasn't noticed a thing as well.)

So he had no qualms going on this Pokemon journey. 

The problem lay in the fact that he already knew that only disaster awaits, which he has to go save now as is the curse of the protagonist of the story.

Chimchar squishes his palms and Admiral leans into his side. Sergeant is still offish, but he's gotten about a step closer than before.

It's starting to get confusing, so let's give his identities names.

The original main character of this world should be 'Lucas'. 

His original world self-- he doesn't remember their name, so he'll call them 'Cece', which makes his name here an amalgamation of both, _' Luce'._

And Cece is only vaguely knowledgeable about the events of the Sinnoh saga. Luce is a fan of Pokemon and aspires to be a trainer, but he's just a normal ten-year-old.

Barry has his father, and he's picked up a lot of trivia and skills from him. Dawn is aspiring to be a researcher-- she's got the education-- perhaps she's even graduated Trainer School at some point, seeing as she's Professor's aide and has the qualifications to do field work.

So does Lucas have any edge to his identity?

He looks through his Pokedex with his free arm. The Pokedex, much like the mangaverse, seems to be a rare item only a select number of people in the world can own, purely for the purpose of gathering data for Professor Rowan.

So what sets Lucas apart from other people is merely the fact that he's 'chosen' for this, and thus 'destined' to become the main character and eventual savious of the world-- which isn't much to say for himself in the long term.

He reads through the Pokedex entries for Shinx, Bidoof, and Starly, the few Pokemon he's encountered so far. Cece has always disregarded this, so Luce will have to read them up and learn about the common sense of this world.

Yeah, he has to do at least that much, or he'll fall behind his rivals. 

* * *

Barry eventually returns, carrying a bag of fresh Potions and medicines, because apparently if you snag the receipt right back and glare at them angrily enough, they will exchange it for new ones.

Luce shudders. The characters in the show tend to liken Barry to his father, but Lucas knows that Barry takes after his mother most of all.

'You really didn't have to,' he signs, feeling sort of guilty about it. He felt like a child that needed to bring his mom to school to complain about his classmate.

They're in the Pokemon Center dorms now, passing by a few other trainers that range from newbies to seasoned trainers, judging by their Pokemon. They managed to get a five-person bunk dorm with two senior trainers who wouldn't be back until late.

"Well too bad, I've already done it," Barry says, shoving it into Luce's hands. "You really should tell them off when they do that to you."

'It was fine.'

"It is not," Barry hisses. "You know they're just doing it because they're unprofessional assholes. Stop letting them walk all over you like that!"

'They aren't.' And did Barry just swear?

"They _are_ ," he says again, "geez, when did you get so wimpy? You've got the resting bitchface and all, didn't know you were scared to use it outside of Twinleaf."

Woah Barry calm down, this is a PG rated game.

'Don't group me in with you.'

Barry gives him an offended look.

Luce peruses his new goods, admires the blatant lack of scratches-- and manages a smile. 'Thank you'.

Barry signs an, expression wise, sarcastic 'you're welcome' right back.

He sits on the bed, resting a hand on Sergeant's feathered back. Admiral sits by the pillow, rustling around his bag for-- whatever, apparently. And where's Chimchar?

Chimchar is playing with a Rhydon to the side, along with an excited Shinx and an eager Machop.

Luce keeps his eyes on them for a while before he realizes Barry's turned his gaze in that direction, too.

"Chimchar's definitely a Naughty nature, so he probably really wants a friend," Barry says, pointing at the scene as if to prove his observation. "Little spitfire indeed?"

Luce silently stews on that information, because _maybe that's why Barry is so damn clingy all of the time_... ah, he shouldn't say that out loud or he'll get noogied.

(Oh right. He literally _can't_ say that out loud. Okay, he has finally found a perk of this new disability.)

"We went through the trouble of asking Professor Rowan for Poke Balls, too. Why'd you ask for some if you weren't gonna get any others? A Shinx would really help with your type coverage, y'know."

"The Poke Balls were for the lake,'' Luce signs back.

Barry freezes, suddenly remembering it as if it was unimportant. "Oh man, we totally forgot about that."

Luce smiles in resignation, but he acknowledges that Barry has a point. 

This isn't like the games where you could overlevel a Pokemon and it'll get you through the whole region if you try long enough. Type coverage and a stable party will mean a lot more and maybe something a little different from what the gameplay usually pertain to.

"You caught it to cover your grass type disadvantage?" he asks, gesturing at the Starly. Though, he's asking this knowing full well Barry caught a Starly simply because he is Barry and thus always has a Starly.

Barry looks at Sergeant and grins. He raises his hands and signs, "yes, but I wanted one personally," he always sounds strangely more formal in sign, "dad had an evolved one when we were younger, remember? We played with it all the time."

Luce flips through Lucas' memories for a moment, unfortunately coming up empty. He nods anyways, shrugging non-committedly in response.

Well, that made sense. He caught one for its sentimental value.

('An evolved one', ugh curse sign language. He checks Starly in his Pokedex, but his evolved forms aren't going to magically show up on an entry. He thinks it goes something like Starry... Avian? Staravian? Wait no, there's another. Oh whatever.)

He can only make a general guess, but Sergeant was probably either a Serious, Modest, or... Lonely, perhaps... And Admiral was either Docile or Hardy with its pride getting in the way somewhere.

And the clear juxtaposition that is to Barry's entire personality makes Luce think they've got their Pokemon rosters switched by fate in some sort of mistake.

"Hey hey," Barry calls for his attention, "I was thinking-- you would do really well with a psychic type Pokemon, wouldn't you?"

Now there was just this startling annoyance present in sign language that even this illogical world of Pokemon didn't seem to bother filling. Maybe sign language just isn't in their interests or something-- but there just, by fact, aren't correct words.

Grass would have to be _Leaf_. Psychic would have to be _Mind_. 

Little language differences in the real world translate right into this world's sign language and trying to decipher some things feel slow and exhausting.

Even _Pokemon_ needed to be signed _Pocket Mysterious Creatures_ each time.

The worst problem of all, was the fact that Pokemon _names_ themselves didn't have signs, excluding nicknames. Much like human names, you would have to fingerspell it one by one-- which is tedious in the long term. 

There were signs for animal names in the real world, so why aren't there any for Pokemon? This was just so-- _ugh! Curse you!_

Anyways.

"A psychic type Pokemon? For me?" Luce asks. Psychic types were notorious to be great Pokemon regardless of type coverage, but he doesn't quite see how that's relevant for a candidate to be a great partner Pokemon for him specifically-- oh.

"Because," Barry grins, "it can read your mind! That'd be a doozy, aye?"

"How the hell did you say that in sign? And how the hell did I understand it?"

Oh, he sees where this is going. 

Luce inches just a little forward from his bed, very interested now.

This makes very, very logical sense.

His main problem now is the fact that he can't give vocal instructions to Chimchar, and that's restricting him from any sort of trainer battling. They've gotten used to wild encounters, but that can only go as far as the starting routes-- it'll definitely get more dangerous hereon in.

And a psychic Pokemon, that can read his instructions straight from his head-- will undoubtedly be a great force on his team.

"Interested now?" Barry taunts.

"Show me the wares, o peddler of trivia I never asked for," is Luce's response. "I'm all ears."


	4. [The wild Abra fled!]

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Luce tries to catch an Abra. It doesn't go well, and Barry isn't very keen on letting him try again.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So apparently there are wild Abra sightings in these parts, though they are notorious to be harder to catch than a dandelion in the wind.

And yeah, Luce sort of knew that there were Abra around here, according to the game. They were usually available, except that they only knew Teleport so they were annoying to catch.

 _Very_ annoying to catch. 

(At least he now knows the route structures and general Pokemon population are the same as the games. He can begin building his Pokemon team like this, then.)

It's nighttime, so they came out around a lake, surrounded by silence and the almost melodious chitter of Kricketot in the night.

There were no trainers around, so they had to be quiet.

**_[One thing I've found as the strangest contrast from the games is that Pokemon don't quite directly come to you when you go through the tall grass_** _ **,]**_ he writes in his Journal. ** _[_ _They act up when disturbed, and get angry when rustled, but Pokemon usually only show themselves when you sit still and be silent.]_**

He sits by the shore of the pond, Barry having gone over to the other side to help him scout one out, not that it would be much help.

There's a Magikarp or three in the pond, but nothing else that's making much noise or presence. A Kricketot comes a little too close, but it doesn't seem to notice Luce before wandering away.

He keeps Chimchar in his Poke Ball, because he's a fire type with a trigger-happy flame on his butt, and he's too hyperactive to stay in Luce's lap for more than three seconds, so yeah.

And if he's trying to catch an Abra, attacking it won't do much good.

(A whistle in the air.)

Luce whirls around to catch a flash of yellow.

So he chases it, nearly tripping over a surprised Shinx (and getting electrocuted and falling into a pile of mud before running off as quickly as he can to the distraction of a disturbed Kricketot,) Luce loses the Abra twice more before he spots it on top of a ledge.

He'll need to be quiet and quick.

He briefly realizes he's lost his scarf at some point in the Shinx escape-- miserable, but he'll go back round when the Shinx is less agitated.

He sets a worried hand on his neck, caressing the scar around the right side-- and looks around, relieved that it's too dark for anyone else to realistically be around. 

He keeps the hand there, though.

Chimchar is now making angry noises inside the Poke Ball because he didn't get to fight the Shinx, so Luce shushes him and begins climbing.

He reaches up to the nearest branch of the tree just adjacent to where the Abra lay-- he hisses, realizing there's a scrape right around his elbow. Looks like he'll have to do this quicker, then. Or Barry will probably throw quite a fit.

The branch creaks under him and he panics.

The Abra stirs a little-- swaying in mid air, gently.

(According to the Pokedex and general observation, at least-- the Abra don't just look asleep-- they are. Its inane psychic capabilities allow it to sense when it's threatened, and those same instincts Teleport him away from hostile situations when necessary.)

So Luce has to be careful, quiet, and calm.

(Except, he can hear his own heart beat and feel it thrum almost too nervously in his chest.)

He fixes his hat and adjusts his grip on the empty Poke Ball.

(This would be Luce's first attempt, ever, at catching anything.)

And he's not feeling all too good about it. Maybe game mechanics don't work quite in the same way and it's impossible to catch an Abra without weakening it first-- after all Pokemon don't attack in succession in the real world. The quickest get an edge here.

He hesitates and reaches for Chimchar.

But the Abra, in its drift, has turned to face him.

(Oh no, it's going to notice him.)

Yelping soundlessly in surprise, he jolts backward and his mud-ridden soles slip right through the side of the branch.

His grip on the trunk doesn't quite make up for the loss of balance-- and it falls out of reach in barely a second, leaving him to the dread of falling facefirst down just a little too high with nothing but panic to brace himself for it.

He makes a strangled noise when he slams against the ground, pain assaulting the arm he barely got in front of his body to catch himself on. Kricketot and Starly scurry away from him, startled by the projectile from the sky.

Prying his face out of the painful, painful ground, he's assaulted by various senses at once. The agony in his head is one, then there's the gradually growing pain in his arm which is slowly becoming unbearable. That isn't good, is it?

Surprisingly, his nose hurts less, definitely not broken, just a little smushed and angry but it'll be alright after an ice pack and a moment of regret.

He looks up, and through the dizzy vision and the dim light, he notes that the Abra is gone. Of course it is.

He looks down and-- oh, _that's_ why his face is the part that hurts the least.

A Psyduck honks, annoyed. 

It's splayed out on the ground, definitely because Luce, the absolute idiot, fell onto it. He panics, but the pain shoots up his left arm and he flinches.

He can't move his fingers well-- crap, that's bad. _Very bad_ \-- so he carefully maneuvers to a sitting position and holds it close to his chest.

The Psyduck crawls up, looking very annoyed. Luce tries to apologize-- only to remember, again, that he can't speak. That's getting a little old now. So when the Psyduck with its eyes set in a frown approaches him, he spins his only available arm to Chimchar Pokeball and releases it.

Which is a horrible idea, but it's better than being at its mercy. That Psyduck is _angry_.

Chimchar immediately hisses at it, his accumulated impatience bursting out as hostility. Luce tries to sign instructions-- but he doesn't want to fight the Psyduck-- he just wants to chase it away, and Chimchar doesn't know those signs yet.

And he can't focus well on the fight when his arm twitches with sharp pain every time he so much as breathes a little too far to the left.

Fortunately, after what was an almost minute-long staredown, the Psyduck turns away, a hand at its head, back into the tall grass.

Mercy, the Psyduck's a pacifist. Or maybe it was calling friends, he doesn't know. 

Chimchar manages another angry hiss before doubling right back toward Luce, a hand hovering above the paralyzed, purpling arm.

Luce has all his focus on it now. 

It hurts a lot-- definitely broken-- he discourages Chimchar from touching it, signing for Barry's name before signing for 'search'. Chimchar understands it after a moment, scrambling up the tree in four smooth hops.

Chimchar disappears for a minute before reemerging from a separate grass patch.

"Oh, god, finally found you," Barry says, sounding relieved. He's clutching a muddied red scarf to his arm, "geez, saw your scarf back there and thought you were dead! Admiral was searching through the waters--"

He falls silent.

Luce manages a weak smile, signing awkwardly for **"I can explain."**

And Barry absolutely _loses_ it.

-

He got one hell of an earful from Barry, then the Nurse-- then his mom and then Professor Rowan over the PC... and hell, Dawn was the worst one of them all.

His ears are still ringing from it, actually.

With his arm in a cast, Chimchar looking absolutely depressed in a corner, and Piplup looking confusedly between them, Luce finds himself getting a staredown from his old friend.

His scarf was washed and dried and hanging by the towels, and Luce had the shawl over his neck. His hat is set aside, and Barry is staring him down.

Barry's been on the bed, arms crossed and glare fixed upon his face for the past ten minutes.

Their dormmates had woken up halfway through all the commotion, and were now keeping a wary eye on the two, wondering if they should say something and keeping quiet in note of the tension between them.

Luce reaches up to sign a question, only to remember halfway through that some signs are harder to sign one-handed. He twitches his other arm just a little too far at the shoulder and he's curling in agony once again.

Barry sighs, finally standing up to shove his friend into the bed.

"Look, that's enough out of you," he says, in the same defeated voice that Luce feels is so familiar, "you're sleeping that off or I'm not leaving for Oreburgh without you."

The double negative makes Luce do a double take, then he redoubles back again with a **"wait, what?"**

"I'm saying," Barry restates, "that if you're gonna be this much of a moron I'm _escorting_ you through Oreburgh Gate if I have to."

Luce immediately returns with an absolute, **_"_ ****no."**

He does not need a damn babysitter and they set off separately for a reason. He barely managed to convince his mom she didn't need to make the trip to Jubilife, he's not going to handle _this_.

 **"It's just a broken arm, I'm fine,"** he insists.

"People don't usually break their arm on day one, Luce!" Barry snaps, "we all know you'd have caught more Pokemon at this point if you could just--" his voice dies out, and he looks away, knowing exactly why he shouldn't finish that sentence.

_("If you could just talk like a normal person and didn't spend so much time figuring out how to fight like a proper Pokemon Trainer.")_

Luce doesn't wait another second to chuck the closest thing he could reach at the boy. Which, though he doesn't realize at first, is the TM27 Professor Rowan had given him just this morning.

It shatters on impact and Barry whirls right apart around, ire in his entire body language. "What the hell was that for?!"

Luce flips him off.

Barry bristles, lunging forward to grab him by the collar. "Look here, you--!!"

"Hey, you two!" their dormmates finally react to the violent action, getting up from their bunks. The first, a thin man in karate garb, scrambles out of the bed to keep them apart. "I know it's been a long day for the both of you, but calm down!"

The other steps over toward the shards on the floor, wincing at the sight. "You two, cool our heads a little. You're scaring your Pokemon, you know that?"

They turn to the Pokemon, and Luce cringes when he sees Chimchar.

The poor chimp looks near tears, guiltily looking between them like he knew he was the cause of this. Starly glares silently, and Piplup takes a step toward Chimchar, keeping a wary eye on the two fighting trainers.

Luce's mouth opens, and his voice doesn't come.

He reaches up and grabs at Barry's collar, bringing the boy closer than before. 

He makes an effort and the whispers come-- it's airly, inaudible, sharp, and doesn't sound like words much more than snarls from an untamed creature-- but he looks Barry right in the eye and hisses-- " _I'm fine on my own_."

Barry looks at him for a long moment-- bites back the frustrated tears-- and slowly, they let go at roughly the same time.

He didn't need to hear it. Whether it be with his furious gaze, his demeaning actions, or just simple lip reading-- he _knew_ what he said. 

"Yeah," Barry admits, unable to look over. "I know you are. My bad."

Luce doesn't move after that.

They are separated and put on their beds, the two older teens looking over them. They clean up the shards of the broken technical machine, rub the Pokemon on the heads. Lopunny curls up around the starters, coddling and tender.

They apologize to their dormmates for all the trouble, and see them off as the two older trainers leave in the direction of Canalave at daybreak.

A little later in the morning, Barry heads toward Oreburgh gate with promises of conquering the next gym as quickly as possible.

Luce reaches up to him before he leaves, setting a hand behind Barry's head and bringing it down so their foreheads touch. He closes his eyes, because nothing else needs to be said here-- they've done this plenty of times. 

Barry freezes, startled for a moment-- then he leans in and hums back a response.

"Yeah, see you later."

Luce looks over to find Chimchar and Piplup staring at him in wonder, and Starly has his eyes squinted in their direction, in his ever-so-irritated manner.

Barry leaves with nothing more than a wave, and while Piplup returns to his Poke Ball, Starly flies along beside him. Chimchar waves back at him before climbing up to Luce's shoulder, seemingly forgetting all about last night's fuss.

-

With only one arm to sign, Luce decides to spend the day observing other trainers rather than battling on his own.

He trails off the route toward Oreburgh and heads north, finding himself on Route 204. There were many more ponds here, along with fences, bushes, and the occasional trainer taking a stroll along the blind spots of the route.

It's peaceful, the air is fresh and dewy, and there's nothing better than this.

For now, at least.

Luce downs the last of his honey tea from his flask, disappointed that he was unable to make more until-- oh, isn't Floaroma just ahead? Maybe he could stop by there to get some honey, and then double back toward Oreburgh.

But that just didn't sound right. If he makes it to Floaroma, he may as well head straight to Eterna. But that would be skipping the first gym entirely and...

(...and in hindsight, that doesn't matter in the long run of things. There is no order in gyms in this world, only the number of badges.)

(...so, should he go straight to Eterna?)

He points at the town on his map, and when Chimchar looks over it curiously, tilting its head back and forth and in absurd angles-- then it gets dizzy and whines-- Luce laughs and patiently teaches it again.

Chimchar signs for **'the Gym'** with an expression that means it's probably asking. 

Maybe it learned the sign from Barry when they were leaving, and wanted to know what it meant. Or maybe it knew what it meant-- it just wanted to know why they weren't going there, too.

Luce gestures at his cast, and Chimchar deflates. 

He pats him on the head with a silent chuckle. With his arm like this, it's really better that they don't challenge the Gym just yet. Oreburgh's a dangerous road to go, so it's better for him to take it easy for at least a week.

_(Sorry, Blair. I won't meet you in Oreburgh. But I'll wait for you in Eterna.)_

**'I am okay',** he signs, slowly. He then thinks for a bit, and adds on, **'we are okay'.**

Chimchar looks at it, arms folded as its head tilted aside again. Slowly but congruently, it signs for **'we'** , and then **'me'** , and then-- **'okay?'**

 **'We are okay,'** Luce repeats, **'always'.**

-

It's slow, but Chimchar can converse with him now. And though he's had the drawback of not being able to speak at first, they've come one step further in being able to talk in a common language, to each other.

They wander Route 204, stumbling upon trainers and apologetically refusing battles-- to which they nod in understanding upon seeing his cast. They warn him of the wild Pokemon ahead, and he nods in gratitude.

They study how other trainers battle.

One Lass has her Bidoof run as nimbly as it can. Its impeccable footwork, especially for a Bidoof, dizzies the Kricketot. Slowly, surely, chipping away at its health with Tackles.

The Kricketot curls in on itself, soft chitters escaping as it squeezes its eyes shut, bearing with two more hits-- and then unleashes the Bide, blowing Bidoof back into a tree. The Lass stumbles back in surprise, but runs for her Bidoof quickly.

On the other side of the route, a Youngster with a Shinx pounces at a Machop, running with it in opposing directions. Tackles don't do much, so it Leers. Machop lunges at the Youngster, and Shinx snarls at it, drawing its attention right around back.

(But Shinx can't learn Taunt. Guess actual Pokemon don't quite follow the rules of the game, huh?)

Luce laughs when the Machop plunges into the water beside a confused Magikarp. Shinx swims like a puppy, raising its head over the water and--

\--and, oh no. Luce runs away from the scene just in time for a deadly kamikaze Spark to set the entire lake into an explosion.

The Youngster seemed to realize his mistake a second too late, as his cheerful declaration of "Spark!" dies down near the end and he's left gaping at the sheer massacre he's committed.

"Hey now, young man, what the hell?!" a man near him snaps over to chastise.

"Use your head, kid!" a teenager raises his voice, "you could've killed someone there! And no! Don't touch the water! Stop!'

Machop floats on the water, and it's knocked out. Impressive for a neutral damage situation, but the water combination could probably knock any Pokemon out, really.

Shinx is still in the water, slightly charred but laughing at itself like the little brat it is.

It paddles doggy styled toward the shore, but the passers-by are stopping the Youngster from fishing it out just yet.

"You're going to electrocute yourself," a Picnicker warns him. 

She sends out her own Geodude, who stares at the electro-charged pond in resignation. Geodude lifts up Shinx and Shinx proceeds to shake itself dry, to the terrified yelps of everyone around him.

Luce watches as the boy and his Shinx get lectured by all the surrounding trainers about why you shouldn't throw your Shinx into the water and cast Spark. Geodude raises its fellow Geodude and a fainted Magikarp in their direction, as if to prove a point.

He doesn't realize for a bit until Chimchar is right beside the Shinx, reaching a curious hand toward the dark fur and-- of course, he gets electrocuted by the remnants of spark in it.

Chimchar shrieks and runs back handfirst, whining about the mild electrocution as if he'd been desecrated to the greatest degree.

Shinx simply laughs, and Luce picks Chimchar up with a resigned smile.

Luce finds something else interesting about the situation. His Pokedex-- people see it as something exceedingly rare in this world, seemingly just like the mangaverse rather than the anime or gameverse.

And you don't have to catch something to get its data-- just getting close enough works.

So he approaches trainers in the area and they cheerfully study the Pokedex entries together, learning more about their own partners and making an attempt at socializing along the way.

It's nice that everyone's so nice in this world.


	5. "Got the Coal Badge!"

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Barry arrives at Oreburgh.
> 
> Luce is nowhere to be seen.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Barry stands by the entrance of the Oreburgh Gym. His Piplup is clinging to his pant leg, and though his posture was slack, he's clearly looking closely around.

"Man, Jim told me about it, but you're really still out here?" The Gym Leader, Roark, peeks out of the building for about the third time of the day. "I have room for one last gym challenge today. Are you finally up for it?"

Barry, in response, just sighs.

He looks around a little more-- and the entrance to Oreburgh gate is as empty as usual. He turns to his Piplup, Admiral, who stares up at him with an unreadable expression in his eyes.

"You think we're up for it, Admiral?" Barry asks, to which Piplup scoffs, turning aside sharply Barry chuckles, "yeah yeah, you were ready yesterday! I know, bub."

He stretches, and spins around with a big grin.

Roark considers Barry a little, shrugging toward the Gym Guide.

The boy had arrived yesterday, late into the morning, and upon arriving at the gym, he had waited at the front door, explaining that he was going to wait for his pal to get here so they could take the gym challenge together.

But when the evening came and went, it was clear that whoever Barry was waiting for wasn't coming. He had been cheerful when he came, but now, the smile was hurt more than anything else.

If anything, Roark's heart went out for the boy.

"Hey Sarge. Sorry to disturb your nap, but let's challenge Roark!"

His voice was happy, but Roark could only think it was forced. Barry whistles, and his Starly, Sergeant, comes back from his perch on the gym roof.

Roark doesn't miss the way Barry looks back one last time toward the gate, before entering the gym. Roark's gaze follows him, lingering on the gate-- and silently, he wonders if that friend was really his friend, if he wasn't here.

Maybe he's just being too spiteful.

He adjusts his helmet, and shakes away the thoughts. There's a story, and it's none of his business. What better consolation than a good battle now?

-

He's not hurt.

Like, maybe they should've invested in a Pokegear, asked for one for his birthday, or something-- because Barry's so unsettled by the fact that he's not constantly beside Luce, he's forgotten that Luce doesn't always follow right behind him.

He said he was headed toward Oreburgh City, but Luce never said he was going there too.

Barry hadn't even considered that.

He just assumed, naturally, that Luce was coming with him. _Isn't it obvious?_ Barry's always a step ahead of Luce, because Luce is slow and does things at his own pace. And that's perfectly fine, that's how they've always been.

That's something that's been different for the last week and Barry really doesn't like it.

"Blair Pearlstein?"

Barry winces, and the Gym Guide, Jim, nods in acknowledgement.

"I'll be announcing your entry, so get ready now," he warns. He heads toward the microphone, and Barry steps toward the entrance, waiting for the bell to toll a mark for his challenge to start. Jim turns around at the last second to ask, "preferred name?"

Barry breathes out, gratified, and says "yeah. Barry," almost too quickly to be subtle.

Jim simply nods.

"Gym Challenger Barry! We've got a new trainer out right before evening today, and he's just raring to go. Gym Trainers, are you ready? GO!"

The Gym battle runs on harder than he'd thought it would be. He leads with Piplup, sweeping through the other trainers and reaching the Leader in no time.

Then came Roark, and-- and it doesn't go as well as he's hoped it could be.

"You're distracted, Challenger," Roark hollers over the noise, staying in his stand, but keeping a firm, scrutinizing eye on the boy.

And Barry knows that. He bites his lip and suddenly, the little safe space he has to command his Pokemon isn't enough. Why can't he run forward, be right beside them? This tiny rectangular slot just isn't enough for him to stand on for such a long time.

Onix goes into position for a Rock Throw-- _no, that's Stealth Rock!_

So he panics. "Admiral, use Water Gun!"

"Onix, to the right!"

And Onix shoots to the side, it's long body drawing back sharply, narrowly avoiding the jet of water. It still scrapes its body, but it's far from a direct hit. It spins right back into position-- and jets forward.

"Bind!"

Barry has to physically stop himself from rushing forward as his Piplup cries out, wrapped around by grinding rock.

"Oh no! Admiral, come--!!" He stops halfway realizing that he can't call his Pokemon back. _That's right._ The bind. 

Oh, his brain isn't working!

He knew most of this-- dad's taught him about that hundreds of times.

"Stealth Rock!" Roark commands, and Barry's chest fills with dread.

"Admiral!" He calls out, but-- but he doesn't know what to do. Piplup can't use water moves all choked up like that, and it'll probably miss. Peck is difficult, so...

"Why are you hesitating?" Roark warns him. Barry lifts his head in surprise. "Any longer and your Piplup will be out for the count. Are you paying attention to your Pokemon?"

_Are you paying attention to your Pokemon?_

(Are you paying attention to _anyone_ , Barry, except yourself?)

(Because if you did, you'd know why Luce isn't here.)

"Shut up!" He yells, finally bursting out in anger. "Of course I am!"

"Getting heated up, are we?"

How could he be anything but? Barry's always looking at Luce. He looks at them the most of anything and anyone else in this world, even his parents. Of course he would know everything about them.

(So why doesn't he?)

(They're not talking about Luce. Why is he angry about that? Look at him, he can't even focus on this match.)

He lifts his head, turning back to the battle. He's better than this. He's better than this. He has to be better than this, he _knows_ he's better than this.

_So... so the best move here is... is what?_

His gaze finally zeroes in on Piplup. Piplup has his arms tucked into himself, eyes closed in a strained manner.

Barry's eyes lit up. He didn't ask Admiral to do that-- why is he doing something Barry didn't ask it to do? Can he do that?

(Of... of course he can. Admiral can think for himself too, after all. And he didn't need Barry to tell him what the best move was.)

"I don't know what you're in for, but Onix," Roark commands, "Rock Throw!"

"Not on my watch! Admiral," Barry declares, "unleash the Bide!"

The power bursts forth in a beam of light, and explodes against the Onix. A shudder, a cry-- and the Onix was down before it could command its attack.

Barry sighs in relief.

Piplup's glaring at him-- a wordless glance he knows very well as a warning, a threat, demanding he keep himself together. 

Barry winces at that. He's not being an ideal trainer right now, and that's obvious. Barry's unfocused, fumbling, being clumsy, and acting like a total amateur.

(Which he is.)

(But he isn't. He prides himself so much in just how much his father has taught him. He boasts about his ability to tell Pokemon moves before they're used. He has Pokemon of this region marked like the back of his hand, and he knows exactly what he wants on his team as he progresses.)

(He has so much _knowledge_ backing him up, yet here he is, making a total fool of himself.)

Roark's face finally pulls into a smile, returning his Onix to its ball.

"That was well done," he acknowledges, lifting his last Poke Ball from his belt. "But your Piplup's not doing so well either. What's your next move?"

Cranidos comes out, and Piplup staggers.

Barry reaches into his bag. He could send out Starly, but Stealth Rock would whittle him down too much too quickly, and Sergeant doesn't have a move that'll hit hard enough.

He could spend a turn on a Potion for Admiral, but that would be instantly chipped away, too. He should've given Piplup a berry before things started...

"Agh! Regretting things won't make it better!" he yells, and everyone in the vicinity, Pokemon included, jumps in surprise.

They turn to him and see Barry nearly ripping a side of his hair out, teeth clenched.

"Admiral! Here's where the real battle begins. It's not over yet!" he shouts, and Piplup turns right back toward the battle, bracing himself right back up on his feet.

Barry retrieves his Pokedex, quickly sieving through Cranidos' entry. His eyes zero in on a certain point, and he keeps it again.

"Well, at least you've got your fighting spirit back," Roark says. "Let's speed this up. Cranidos, Headbutt!"

With a short grunt of affirmation, Cranidos braced against the ground, and-- "To the left!" Barry yells, just as Cranidos bursts forward, skull-first.

Piplup spins to the side, narrowly avoiding the headbutt. Cranidos keeps going, crashing into a rock and shattering it into multi millions of shards, leaving a deep crack in the boulder.

"I'm impressed you predicted its trajectory," Roark hums, "though, I'm also surprised the boulder didn't break completely..."

Barry narrows his eyes on that.

"Admiral, BubbleBeam!" he yells, "then hide behind the rocks!"

Piplup shoots out a jet of bubbles from its beak, blowing Cranidos back a step or two. But once Cranidos gained its bearing again-- Piplup was gone.

"Hiding behind the rocks now, huh? You're such an opportunist," Roark chuckles, rubbing the back of his head. "I've got to admit, that was my big mouth. But I digress, I don't hate a trainer who knows to take anything he can get."

Barry grins, "I'll take that as a compliment."

Roark nods. "Cranidos! Break every rock you can find, Piplup is behind one of them."

Cranidos charges toward a rock, taking only one hit to shatter it this time. The next one breaks in two hits, but Piplup isn't behind it either.

(Roark keeps an eye on Barry-- and Barry keeps an eye on Roark.)

 _(He's not commanding his Pokemon?_ Roark realizes, surprised-- _come to think of it, the Bide just now wasn't a direct order either.)_

Piplup leaps out from behind Cranidos-- and with a loud cry, another jet of BubbleBeam hits Cranidos' back.

Cranidos spins around, but Piplup is gone again.

Barry's grin strains a little nervously, but he can't hold back the excitement in his posture. 

Roark can't help but smile at the sight. He adjusts his helmet, and hums in acknowledgement.

"You're going to be a great trainer, I know it," he says, chuckling. "You've turned my rock terrain against me-- this is the first time it's ever happened. How did you come up with it, if I might ask?"

"Well, thank you?" Barry says in the tone of a question. "Uh," he looks around, trying to figure out where Admiral is, because for the love of god he doesn't know where his own Piplup is, "the Pokedex entry says that Cranidos, uh, Cranidoses?"

Roark chuckles at the part.

"Oh, shush!" Barry flushes. "Anyways! Once they start running for a headbutt, they don't stop till they hit something," he says, almost like a declaration. "And apparently they're dumb because of that hard head."

Roark fake gasps, "oh, you're hurting his feelings. That was mean."

Cranidos gives them a confused look, tilting its head aside. Barry looks away, muttering that that was what the Pokedex said and he's just saying it-- but he can feel Piplup glaring judgmentally at him from wherever it's hiding.

Roark smiles in response. "Well then, one last go. Cranidos, Dig!"

Barry gapes. Alright, then-- "Admiral, get on the boulders!"

Piplup emerges, jumping on a fairly-sized stone at the edge of the field, looking out carefully for signs of Cranidos' emergence.

"Smart," Roark says, "but Cranidos is coming up with the force of a Dig, not just a Headbutt. So this time--" Cranidos bursts forth, uprooting the entire boulder with it, shattering it to pieces and sending Piplup spinning in fright. "It's stronger!"

"Oh no--" Barry yells, "Water Gun!"

"Pursuit!"

Piplup doesn't regain his balance in time-- and one last crash from Cranidos sends him flying, rolling, and still.

The fight is over.

Barry mirthfully returns his Piplup to his Poke Ball, and takes out Starly's. He looks at Roark, and Roark smiles back, prepared.

Barry sighs. "I'll give up."

Roark's smile falls into a pout, "oh man, really?"

Barry huffs. "Sarge is better for fights that are drawn out, but with the type disadvantages and Stealth Rock laying around, I'm not taking my chances. I'll go train up and try again."

Roark hums at that, stepping forward as he returns Cranidos to its Poke Ball.

"You did really well for a first try, though. I had a lot of fun," he assures. With a grin and a thumbs up, he flicks something in his direction. "Here you go."

Barry barely catches it between the Poke Ball and his hand-- and realizes he'd just been given the Coal Badge.

There's a whistle, a cheer, and Barry notices the audience-- consisting of Jim and the other Gym Trainers he'd beaten along the way-- clapping for him.

"Good going, boy!"

"You did it!"

"What--" Barry flusters, "wait, but I didn't-- I lost the battle!"

Roark nods. "And I'm technically not allowed to use Dig against a no-badge trainer, yet here we are," he shrugs, "I think it's fair game."

Barry's at a loss for words. "Are you-- are you allowed to do that?"

"Well, I'm the Gym Leader," Roark says, puffing out his chest in a show of stature. "I'm allowed to do whatever the hell I want."

Someone in the crowd chokes on laughter, and Roark blushes.

"Oh shut up, you guys!"

"But-- hahaHA, but leader you-- ah, I can't, you sounded _just_ like Byron!"

Barry stares at the Coal Badge in his hands-- and something about it feels precious. It's supposed to be a mark of his journey, a first step forward in his eventual goal to get all eight and then conqueror his dad.

Instead, he just wants to hold on to it, and tuck it away as a reminder of this losing battle.

Not a mark of achievement, but a smoldering scar he wants to keep by his side. He sets it in the first spot of his badge case, and closes it meaningfully.

"I'll come for a rematch one day," he promises, "and when that day comes, I'll have eight badges and you'll fight me with your full team, right?"

Roark beams. "Of course! You're on, Challenger."

-

Barry lays in his Pokemon Center bed, and he can't sleep. So he gets up, and sits by the desk, his Journal open before him, with only two lines between the dates.

**_[Luce didn't show up today either.]_ **

**_[Defeated Gym Leader Roark and got the Coal Badge.]_ **

There's a lot to think about, but he's never been best at penning things down. 

He's not a fan of writing as much as reading, and for his Journal, point form is his way to go. He's the kind that keeps all the detailed info seclusively in his head-- he'll probably lose it every once in a while-- but it'll come back when he needs it to. That's just how he functions.

And yet.

And yet today, he froze up.

He's a trainer by theory. He can predict the move a Pokemon is going to use by its stance. He can read their trajectory that way, too. But in general battle experience, he's got nothing. If it weren't for Admiral's quick thinking in most parts (in all the parts that mattered) he would've lost, fair and square.

Why did he get the badge? (Because Roark acknowledged his prowess, and it didn't matter if it was a clean win or not, because he's proven himself to have what it takes to go on.) But is that really true?

Piplup's exhausted from carrying the battle.

Barry spent half of his time worrying about someone that isn't coming.

(And it doesn't hurt, really.)

The Coal Badge is tucked far into his bag, inside the case. His scarf is left by the pillow, and he curls up on the chair, contemplating in silence until the sun rises.

He finds three disks in a carefully protected slot of his bag. 

It's marked properly-- Luce made sure to write down [Return] on Barry's for him, so Barry looks through the other two that Roark gave him after the gym challenge.

He writes down on the darker one, [Rock Smash], and the other one is [Stealth Rock]. At least, he's fairly sure it is. He's always been good at everything else, but colours aren't his strongest suite. Luce usually labels things for him, in case he gets them wrong.

He sighs.

(The sound of a Technical Machine shattering against his shoulder rings in his head.)

Forget it. They'll be fine, something like this isn't enough to dent a whole childhood of close-knitted friendship. 

He just has to meet up with Luce as soon as possible to get his dose of camaraderie, that's all. 

-

"Seriously?"

Barry stares exasperatedly at the only thing in his way-- a bike hill. If he could just go up there, he'd be close to Hearthome where the next gym would be.

Route 203 ended with a large curved slope, leading up to Route 207. Barry could climb up the ladder to get to the top, but it's a path for skateboarders and cyclists, so it's an unconventional shortcut rather than a legitimate path.

Why is there no legitimate path? 

"If you're headed for Eterna, I'd recommend against it," Roark says, "the Cycling Path is between them, so you'll need a bike to head that way."

"Ah, no, I'm headed for--" Barry trails off. He tries to recall the City on the map.

(If Luce headed for Floaroma-- where else would he go, seriously-- then his next destination would be Eterna. Barry should head there too, if only to brag about his Gym Badge and... and check up on Luce's arm. Yeah, that sounds right.)

(Argh, don't look at me like that, Admiral! Okay, I'll go apologize, okay??)

"Where can I get a bike?"

"Well uhm," Roark rubs the back of his head, averting his gaze. He hesitates a moment longer before he admits, "well... Eterna."

Barry gawks. "This is the quickest way to Eterna and the only bike shop's in Eterna?!"

"Yeah," Roark looks away, "unfortunately."

"Don'tcha 'unfortunately' me!" Barry snaps, "this is _terrible_ tourism!"

Roark looks away, "hey hey, I'm busy with the mine and the gym, okay? I have my hands full," he insists, though he looks away guiltily. "I promise, I tried. Just gave up cause people who come here are mostly locals who already have bikes, and trainers."

"And trainers are the key point here!" Barry snaps. Roark shrinks.

"Okay, okay, I'm sorry," Roark says, though there's laughter at the end of his voice, "how about this? I'll put a word in and get you a free bike when you eventually reach Eterna on your own?"

Barry blinks at that. 

_A free.. Bike? Seriously?_ Those things cost a ton, and oh, Barry definitely knows that. It's in his eventual budget plans. 

Getting one for free? Oh damn, he can start fining Luce for nine million instead of ten now.

"Sweet!" he says, evidently pleased by that, "can I really?"

"Sure, I guess," Roark says with a shrug, "but getting it shipped will probably take longer than actually going around through Floaroma, so you gotta get there on your own. Is that fine?"

"Course!" Barry says, "that's little in exchange for, _oh bless the mythical Pokemon of the world yes_ , a godforsaken bike!"

"But hush, alright? Can't have people calling me out for favouritism or anything," Roark says, mildly amused by the abnormal string of words he can't believe isn't a swear word. He's smiling down, looking pleased at Barry's excited demeanor. He almost wants to pat him on the head. "I'll hold you on to that rematch in the future, alright?"

"Awesome!" Barry cheers, "I get a bike! Wait," he swirls around, "can I get two?"

"Don't push your luck now."

"Okay, okay, geez, don't glare."

Roark ruffles Barry's hair either way, and turns around. "Alright then. I've gotta return to the mines now, so here's where I'll leave you," he informs, picking up his helmet and slotting it back on his head. "Safe journeys, challenger."

Barry scowls at the head pat and sniffs at the well wishes.

Then Roark is gone, and Barry is left alone again.

(It's a dull throb, but it doesn't hurt.)

"Alright then," he says, to no one in particular. "I'm sure if we run, we can catch up to Luce around the forest."

After all, Luce was slow and steady, while Barry was the rampage through his roads like a madman. Barry reckoned he could charge right over Veilstone in two days if gravity allowed him to.

He lets Starly out to fly.

"Let's go!"

_(It's going to stop hurting soon.)_


	6. [Help, help, Trainer!]

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Luce wanders north, finding himself in a town of flowers, honey, crying children, and hijacked power plants. 
> 
> Yeah, that doesn't sound right.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> _Tap, tap, tap_ , Chimchar skids against the ground, the wall behind him and the Geodude right in front of him, lunging forward. _Tap, tap, click!_ Chimchar leaps to dodge a boulder tackle, and plunges down with a critical Ember.

The Geodude goes down.

Chimchar runs over with a grin, and Luce high-fives him. It's getting easier to coordinate attacks, but all the Pokemon in the area have a type advantage against Chimchar, so it's quite tough to get going.

"Working hard, aren't ya?" the Hiker says with a hearty laugh.

He had caught Luce trying to head in and offered to follow, simply because an old soul like him was concerned for a newbie with his arm in a cast.

Luce talks slowly, especially with only a small Poketch writing pad to converse with, but they manage. He does get talked over a lot, though, but he's used to that much.

Luce gets through most of the Ravaged paths with the Hiker, who crushed boulders out of the way for him.

He figures it makes sense-- you need the Gym Badge to get past this point in the game, but realistically, any fighting type should be able to smash rocks, and the road should be clear for travels between towns.

"Oh crap! Dodge that, kid!"

Luce is ripped out of his thoughts to a Zubat trailing too close to him, and a gush of water shooting in their direction.

Thankfully, Water gun doesn't do much real damage to a human from afar, and Luce got off with just a slightly stinging drenched pant leg. 

The Zubat totters aside, evidently near fainting at this point.

Out from the rocks popped up a Psyduck, clambering across the stones with a sort of presence in its movements, the kind you never see in a Psyduck of all things. And it looks angry-- very annoyed.

(Maybe it's female. Female Pokemon always seemed more irritable... or wait, is that sexist?)

The Zubat is hiding behind him now, using him as a shield. Luce has half a mind to be annoyed that he's getting attacked because a Zubat is using him as a hiding post-- but he dismisses it in favour of approaching the Psyduck.

"Wa--" the Hiker speaks up, reaching for his Poke Balls, but Luce assures him that he'll be fine.

Upon closer inspection, the Psyduck was a little dizzy, a little scratched up. Evidently, the Zubat had disturbed her nap to begin with, and the Psyduck chased it over from one of the cavern ponds in retaliation.

Just like the Psyduck from last night, Luce realizes. Irritable and short-fused. 

_Is she the same one?_

Psyduck huffs, looking at Luce and seemingly recognizing Luce. She turns away almost in resignation, holding her head in a headache-- just like the night before.

Luce sits down, reaching for a Potion in his bag to heal the Zubat. The Zubat brrs and flutters, but smiles, spinning a circle of gratitude around Luce before leaving.

Luce then holds the Potion up, and gestures for the Psyduck to come forward.

The Psyduck almost glares at him, and Luce jolts, afraid of a retaliation-- but the Psyduck stomps angrily forward, sitting down with a huff, almost as if to make a statement about her headache.

Luce laughs as he sprays the Potion on the Psyduck, who hisses back in annoyance, but looks like she's doing better now.

Chimchar cheers out a greeting, and Psyduck stares at him before sighing with all of her shoulders.

* * *

They make it out of the Ravaged Paths, and the Hiker bids them goodbye to head back toward Jubilife.

 **'Lunch',** Luce signs to Chimchar, and Chimchar, seeing the picnic mat, cheers in delight. It signs the word for Lunch over and over again, and Psyduck hasn't stopped glaring yet.

Wait.

Luce yelps as he spots the Psyduck-- _she followed him?!_

He thought she went back to the cave pond-- and why didn't the Hiker say anything about her?

Psyduck glared at him, as if challenging him to chase her away-- and Luce crumples. Sitting down, they share a meal of rice balls and tea, enjoying their lunch with one unexpected visitor.

(Oh, she's a doozy alright. Maybe Barry's an esper.)

Turns out, Chimchar can write, though his writing is about as legible as a child that just started kindergarten.

And a Pokemon's understanding of human language is about as coherent as a two-year-old's, where they can instinctively understand meanings but don't really construe words.

Which is a little tough, since Chimchar learning the alphabets aren't very useful without teaching him actual words. But oh well, he'll manage. Seeing a Chimchar start drawing in the sand is not something he thought he'd find peace watching. 

At some point, Psyduck had settled by Luce's side, snoozing lightly.

Chimchar kicks some sand as he runs, and Psyduck gets up immediately, adding a footprint to the beautiful smiley face on the ground. Chimchar gets angry, and they chase each other around.

Luce signs for Chimchar's name, and Chimchar obediently comes up to him.

Psyduck has her hands on her head, but he looks over, curious.

Luce looks at it-- and then reaches toward his bag, retrieving an empty Poke Ball from the pocket. Tilting his own head to the side-- he hopes the Psyduck knows what he means.

_(Do you want to come with me?)_

Psyduck squints, holding her head a little harder. Luce falters, but just as he moves to put the Poke Ball back into his bag, the Psyduck runs forward with a warcry-- and bobs her head right against the button.

Luce has never felt a Poke Ball rattle three times and click literally in his hand before, but it sure is a nerve wracking experience.

(And heck, this Pokemon agreed to come for the food, didn't she?)

Psyduck pops right back out, huffing in a sort of pride-- and Luce engulfs her in a one-armed hug. Well, he's not complaining about it at all. It's not a Psychic type Pokemon like he'd been advised to get, but it's a new companion nonetheless and he's happy enough.

* * *

After cleaning up the area, Luce heads toward the smell of flowers with Chimchar at his shoulder and Psyduck toddling by, distracted by every other flower on the road.

Communication with Psyduck is a little easier. She didn't have proper, five-fingered hands of any sort to learn signs, but she learned how to read them easily enough, and Chimchar was more than eager to supply his own explanations in their tongue.

Psyduck's interactions with Chimchar boiled down to Psyduck sleeping, waking up then glaring at the cheerful chimp, and Chimchar chasing after the golden duck after a prank of some sort.

Luce honestly doesn't know if they get along or they hate each other.

He sets the map down on the ground and finds out where he is-- just on the outskirts of Route 204, nearing Floaroma.

If this was the game, entry to this side of the road was impossible until you had the Oreburgh badge. So it's refreshing, yet slightly unsettling that he's come this far without a single Gym badge in his pocket.

(But, in hindsight, little people in this world have badges to begin with, so these limitations have little substance here. But does that mean he can go to Canalave now if he wanted to?)

Well, he'll think about it later.

Floaroma smells sweet, with the misty waft of pollen and honey mixed in with the petrichor that never seems to fade.

That, combined with the sway of the trees, the chitter of the Combee, and the rainbow-coloured flowers across the horizon-- it just made a breathtaking image, a blessed land cradled by the gratitude of nature.

He stops by the Pokemon Center to heal up, but it doesn't take long, so he rented a dorm and headed back out again.

He has his cast taken off and changed for a simpler sling and brace, because Chansey's healing does wonders for injuries in this day and age. He just needs to lay off of it for a while longer and it'll be peachy in no time.

**_[It's nice that the Center doesn't charge trainers for the facilities,]_** he writes in his Journal as they settle down by the flower fields, avoiding the flowers and sitting by the carefully crafted walkway between them.

Resting the notebook by his thigh and uncapping the pen with his teeth, it's fairly easy to write one-handed. He pauses when Chimchar tugs at his pants cuff, pointing suspiciously at some commotion in the distance.

A uniformed group stands menacingly across from each other, their faces stoical as a statue.

An aroma lady approaches them, frowning. "Would you let me pass?" she asks, polite even with her impatient tone.

The grunts have obviously been standing there for much too long, and the meadow's a popular tourist spot. Evidently, no one appreciates the herd of uniformed men.

To her embarrassment, the grunts don't even spare a glance at her. Her face grows red and she struts forward, "please clear the road, you're being a nuisance and I have business at--"

The grunt slaps her hand away fiercely, and she gasps, stepping back in surprise. A few people around them whirl around in alarm. The grunt retains their expressionless demeanor, and moves back into an at ease position.

_Like a soldier on standby_ , Luce realizes. 

They're stoical unless you approach them, on display until someone goes through the boundary they aren't supposed to cross.

Luce recognizes this.

 _Mangaverse_ , he deems. These grunts were soldiers don't have a will of their own, and operate like a group of machine soldiers.

"You alright?" a Bug-Catcher approaches the Aroma Lady frantically. Clarifying that she was alright, he sizes up the grunt, "hey! What's with you guys? Don't you think you've been enough of a--"

And he's shoved to the ground in a similar, but much rougher manner. Then the grunt returns to their original position, like nothing had ever occurred.

"You punks are--!!"

"Enough!" a Hiker interrupts, "they're not worth it. Let's go."

The Bug-Catcher tuts, but he turns away to begrudgingly admit he's right.

"Geez, what's with those guys?" he mutters, dusting off his shoulder as he marches away from the scene, the rest of the crowd dissipating with him, "the meadow's for everyone! What makes them think they can just do this?"

"It's fine," the Aroma Lady sighs, "I'm sure they'll be gone eventually."

Luce stays by the shadow of the tree, watching them leave. The grunts, just as before, don't even move. They probably hadn't even acknowledged the disturbance.

**_[My first run-in with Team Galactic.]_ **

He closes his Journal and puts it in his bag, returning Psyduck and Chimchar to their Poke Balls one after another. Chimchar whines at first, but after a sad look from Luce, he consents.

Luce didn't encounter Team Galactic at Jubilife like the game Lucas would have, so he starts here. Which means that ultimately, the events of the story will still run on whether he clears them in order or not.

He sighs. 

Guess he'll have to do the main character thing and go.

* * *

After asking around and then looking at a few signs along the way, he finds himself at Valley Windworks. Route 205 isn't blocked off by Galactic Grunts-- which means he can go straight ahead to Eterna if he needs to.

That is, if the girl didn't stop him.

"P-Please, anyone!" she runs right into him, crashing into his back in a way strangely reminiscent of Barry-- but she's too small to bowl him over. 

So Luce turns around to find the little girl, tears in her eyes, her breath shaking. He holds her by the shoulder, crouching down and trying to get her to calm down-- but his breath holds at the torn-up lab coat in her arms.

The edges are brimmed with some still-damp blood, the coat torn up with far too many holes to be worn ever again.

"What's going on?" a Youngster approaches them from a distance-- but he sucks in a sharp breath at the sight, "oh god. What happened?"

"M-My papa," she sobs, "he was working and-- and some people just barged in and--" she breaks out into wails, and Luce brings her to his chest in a one-armed hug, rubbing her back in a vain attempt to soothe her.

"Wait, your papa-- he got attacked? Where?"

His eyes meet the Youngster's, and Luce realizes that there's no way to communicate the situation well enough if she's this inconsolable.

He doesn't think her dad is dead. They need him to work the power plant, after all. But the blood means he's not exactly having a luxurious situation in there, either.

So Luce lifts the girl to his side with his good arm, standing up and balancing her carefully as she sniffles into his shoulder.

He doesn't have any other free hands to write, so he nudges his head in the direction of the power plant. The Youngster takes a moment, but he blows.

"Wait!" he says, "you're heading for it? That's reckless! We should go get some of the stronger trainers in the town--"

He's interrupted by the girl, who drops the lab coat and panics to pick it up again.

"Papa's coat!"

She struggles to grasp it, and Luce cringes as she jostles his bad arm harshly with her foot-- but the Youngster lunges for it, snagging it out of the air whilst helping to balance her at the same time.

"Careful," the Youngster says, "here, hand her to me."

Luce doesn't need another moment, because as soon as she's off her, the pain comes back tenfold and he holds his arm, trying hard to not let the pain show on his face.

 _(It'll fade_ , he reminds himself, _it'll fade in a second.)_

He gestures at Valley Windworks again, and raises his Poke Balls to assure the Youngster he's capable of defending himself if need be.

"Ah--" the Youngster realizes Luce's about to head out again. But this time, he scrunches up his face and nods. "Alright. I'll go find help from the town. You be careful, alright?"

It's not until he's run off toward the town that Luce feels the sinking feeling in his gut that he's just made a mistake.

Because despite everything-- he genuinely hasn't fought a Trainer before in this life.

He'll be fine, he'll be fine. 

_He'll be fine, right?_

He lets Chimchar and Psyduck out of their Poke Balls and signs **'battle'**. Chimchar nods. They have been listening in, after all, they know what's going on.

Luce takes a deep breath and hopes for the worst to not be so bad.

* * *

The grunt at the doorway is unlike the ones at the Floaroma Meadow. Luce approaches them-- and she turns to him sharply, eyes blown wide and fierce.

Luce flinches, but he steps forward instead of back, and the grunt moves. She sets her feet shoulder-width apart and draws her Poke Ball.

Luce swallows, and sets a hand on Chimchar, a clear signal.

Glameow comes out, and Chimchar leaps forward with a sharp Scratch across the feline's face. Chimchar doubles right back to Luce's shoulder, and Glameow hisses, bouncing back to the grunt's feet.

Glameow looks up, but the grunt doesn't look back. She simply points forward and commands, "hypnosis."

Luce reacts immediately, extending his arm outward. Chimchar instinctively runs to the hand, and Luce tosses Chimchar into the air right out of the range of the Hypnosis.

He falters when a wave of crushing exhaustion spills through him, but he raises his head and signs for Ember.

Chimchar doesn't need a timing guide this time. 

The Glameow is quickly taken out, and returns to its Poke Ball.

Luce holds his head, falling to his side right beside Psyduck. His eyelids weigh heavily, and he bites his lip at an attempt to stay awake.

In the last dredges of his hazy vision, he sees the grunt turn around, almost unfazed, before switching places with another grunt stationed inside, a male this time, who takes her place as the door guard.

His nap approximately lasts five seconds.

Psyduck sprays him with a Water Gun and Chimchar is at his chest, crying dramatically. The moment he wakes up, though, Chimchar cheers and jumps in glee, and Psyduck huffs, pointing annoyedly at the Windworks again.

He pats them on the head as he begins to think.

They're a little away from it now, just enough for the grunt to ignore him. But the new grunt is back at the door and another battle won't allow him to get through-- who knows how many of them are left inside to just go on an endless chain?

It's better to just sneak in, right?

So time for an unconventional solution.

**"Back door,"** he suggests, signing slowly before spelling it out so both of the Pokemon can hopefully understand.

The back door of Valley Windworks seemed to be fenced off, leading to water-- but there's a clear hind entrance around the water mill with a little bridge leading in.

It's strange architecture, but who's he to judge?

Luce quietly trails over, crossing a little of Route 205 into the small path-- if his memory serves right, there's the ledge here that you can't climb in the games.

It only takes him two tries, an improvised escape rope being used as a climbing rope, and Chimchar's sturdy arms to get him up there. Maybe Psyduck helped by standing under him as a cushion, but aside from the temper tantrum as a result, they get through with no issues.

And then, he sees it.

A straight path into the back of Valley Windworks. There aren't any guards posed in this place, but there are a few patrolling the perimeters. Luce finds the door pretty easily.

Unfortunately for him, it's the very frustrating wheel-handle sort of door people usually put on high security safes, and you definitely need two large human hands to crank it open. 

(That is, if it's not locked to begin with.)

And Luce does not have two large human hands at the moment. Or two hands for the matter. Oh hey Chimchar has two hands, but they're not human. 

Psyduck in fact has a glare and a temper, but neither of those are helpful right now. 

**"Ember,"** he suggests, and Chimchar spews an orb of fire that burns the knob for a second, then nothing happens. So Luce looks up and--

\--and there's a window. Okay then.

Using the same rope and careful climbing as before, albeit with a lookout this time, they make it up to the balcony, where it's much easier for Chimchar to sear a hole through the glass to fit a hand through and unclip the latch.

It's simple from there.

There aren't many grunts stationed around the second floor. They're mostly in the perimeters, and the first floor. The second floor is laden with Pokemon instead.

He could send Chimchar around to scout the area, but there are only Glameow and Zubat around. A Chimchar would really stand out-- and Psyduck, even more so.

So he returns his Pokemon to their Balls and clips it at his belt with a soft shush. They look on skeptically, but ultimately did not burst out in defiance, so he guesses it's alright.

Luce likes sneaking around.

'Lucas' has always been quiet, so sneaking up on Barry and scaring him before he realizes has always been a hobby. 'Cece' had other things to worry about, and sometimes, hiding and skulking around was just a style of life, a situation they inevitably find themselves stuck in.

Well, that's beside the point.

He maneuvers around the Zubat, ducks around the Glameow-- and has to fight two of them, but Psyduck handles them easily, knowing well enough how to handle Zubat without any commands. Cave spite, perhaps?

They attract some attention with the noise, but there are plenty of blind spots within the machinery, and Luce dodges them enough to get through.

(Or at least, he thinks he does. He's quite sure a Glameow glanced his way a couple times, but ignored him. Maybe their instructions weren't exactly to get rid of intruders, or some of them just couldn't be bothered.)

Deep inside, he's anxious.

Zubat weren't known for their eyesight, but they're known for surveillance because they're, exactly that, bats. It's hard to think that only one of them's attacked him thus far.

They probably already know he's in here. Just like the Glameow, they're simply ignoring him for some reason.

(Is it because they don't see him as a threat?)

(Or because...)

"So..."

Luce freezes against the computer behind him-- and he doesn't dare look over.

"...find anything interesting yet, little boy?"

Luce looks up over his shoulder slowly, and his heart iced over in dread.

Mars sits on the desk behind him, considering her nails and inspecting a chipped point of polish. She looks over her shoulder and smiles, her tone deceptively honeyed despite her amusedly curled lips.

(...or because they've already reported back, so they don't _need_ to do anything.) 


	7. [So, the Team Galactic. Where are they?]

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Luce tries and fails to win against a cat, gains a temporary ability to communicate with a duck, and then meets a suspicious man that gives him a video camera. 
> 
> His life is weird, isn't it?

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> He's in trouble. Yeah, no shit sherlock, he definitely is. 

He's stuck in the main room now, with a harried man working through three computers at once, sweating through his shirt and bleeding in one bandaged leg.

It's less injury than Luce had thought he'd have, so that's a mild relief.

Sitting on a chair with a Zubat on his shoulder, Luce swallows nervously.

"Look here, you've got a visitor," she sings to the man-- probably the girl's father, the power plant owner. He looks over, his face filling with dread. 

She sets down Chimchar and Psyduck's Poke Balls on the desk.

Luce keeps his face composed, because the man's evidently stressed out, on the verge of a panic attack, and Luce can't give him another reason to be shoved over the edge.

Luce, strangely enough-- isn't as scared as he thought he'd be.

He's not calm, but he isn't flustered either. He's looking around, noting that Mars has a Purugly beside her, plenty of Zubat, and some Stunky. He meets eyes with Chimchar and Psyduck, and subtly shakes his head.

There's a Zubat with its wing on the man's neck. Luce quickly finds himself in a similar situation, and he averts his eye quickly.

"Oh, don't be scared."

Luce shoots back when Mars is suddenly an inch away from him, but she smiles at his reaction and backs off, standing straight and dainty like the elegant girl she is(n't).

"Zubat, don't bother," she says, and Zubat thankfully, _thankfully_ , removes its wing.

It stays on his shoulder, though, but that's much better. Mars leans over the back of the chair, inching disturbingly close to the plant owner as he keeps a careful eye on Luce.

"Now, boy, you know what will happen if you make any wrong moves." The Zubat beside the plant owner's neck inches just a little closer-- and Luce fights to tell her to stop.

His voice doesn't come. _Why does he keep forgetting that?_

So he nods, and raises his able hand, signifying a surrender.

Mars smiles at that. "Good boy," she says, and turns back toward the plant owner. "Now, you. No slowing down now. Get all that power in, hurry."

Luce breathes in.

And breathes out.

He comes in only to get caught. That's pathetic. Maybe he should've thought this through like someone with a proper head screwed on. He just hopes Barry doesn't hear of this, because his head would fly and Barry would never stop sticking to him. 

Luce thinks for about ten seconds before he decides he's got no plan. He's too old for this-- wait, nevermind, he's actually pretty damn young. He's too young for this, then. 

Maybe the girl and the Youngster are bringing in backup, but can he afford to wait that long?

(Well, what better plan than to just tank through, right?)

So shifts his hand, from a palm, to a curled three-- then he turns his hand back and _swings_ , arm and elbow cranking over to the Zubat on his shoulder, throwing it right out of range.

Right then, Psyduck pops out of her Poke Ball and in one wail of her name, the entire building trembles.

No-- not the building. _Them_.

Psyducks eyes gleam an ominous red, and she holds her head tight in a sort of pain-- a wave of psychic energy bursting forth and petrifying everyone to their spots. 

Like a pulse, Luce's head explodes with pain, and he crumbles to his knees.

Vision is back in a second, but the pain lingers for a second longer.

Luce briefly notices that everyone in the room was affected similarly. The Purugly crawls back up to its feet, but both Zubat in the room, including the one that had its wing on the plant owner's neck, had fainted.

 _Confusion_ , he realizes. He did ask her to 'attack' with no specific order, but _of all things..._

Mars seems to have taken the brunt of the attack, being closest-- so Luce runs over and grabs the plant owner by the arm, taking him to his side. He realizes a second too late Chimchar's Poke Ball is still on the table, and hesitates.

(It's super effective against Chimchar, too, so it must still be reeling.)

(Heck, it affects them even inside the Poke Ball?)

"Oh no you don't!" Mars declares, "Purugly, Faint Attack!"

Purugly shakes off the dizziness and lunges forward. Spinning back, Psyduck leaps before him to brace for the attack.

_Water Gun should do more damage!_

Luce is surprised when Psyduck actually does churn out a jet of water. He doesn't linger on it yet, though. He lets go of the plant owner's arm and sets his fingers in his lips, taking a breath before whistling loudly.

Then he signs for Scratch.

Chimchar, gathering himself in a roll and a few tentative shakes of his head to get rid of the dizziness-- escapes his Poke Ball, his eagerness gushing forth with a roar and a wild glare.

Mars composes herself, clicking her tongue. "Pesky brat," she hisses. "You think you can do anything with your miserable Pokemon? Purugly! Fake Out!"

A slap to the face makes Chimchar cringe back, whirling back into piles of documents and disappearing under the desk. 

Purugly doesn't wait another second, and Psyduck is sent flying, too.

From the loud taps he can hear and feel from the ground, people (grunts, probably) are coming by, alerted by the noise. 

So Luce gives the plant owner a glance-- and the plant owner looks back, confused.

This would be a situation where speech would really be useful. But Luce can't mourn for what he doesn't have right now. With Chimchar and Psyduck collapsed and out of range, they can't see his commands, either. 

His 'forget everything and charge' plan has just failed terribly. 

Purugly stands before him now, her claws honed and Mars brimming into a grin.

"Now, be nice, boy," she says, "seems like you need a reminder."

Another Zubat whips right into the room, its limb flung forward in a Wing Attack aimed straight for his neck. He tries to look away, to find something-- but his closest hand is in a cast. 

His blood goes cold, and he's left watching the seconds as it comes closer, closer-- and--

\--he's engulfed by a pair of arms and he's falling, shoved to the side by a larger, warmer, figure.

He falls painfully onto the ground, and the plant owner breathes heavily above him. He'd shoved them both aside, and-- and Luce suddenly realizes he owes this guy his life, probably.

"That... that was close. You alright?" Luce looks up, surprised. But he nods, and the plant owner looks relieved. "That's great. I'm sorry I don't have Pokemon on me, so I can't help, but..."

The power plant owner's words trail off-- and then he collapses, unconscious.

Luce panics, shaking his head as they scramble to get up. He wasn't hurt-- _what's going on?_

"Back to work, mister," Mars hisses, almost irritated.

The owner stands up, almost robotically-- _too_ robotically-- and with a whisper, eyes dazed out-- he staggers forward toward the computers. He's back in his seat, continuing to do exactly what Mars wanted him to do.

Luce watches him move, eyes wide. Mind Control?

"Confuse Ray," Mars explains, stepping forward. She crouches down, her hand on Luce's chin as she made him look toward her. "And I've put your Pokemon to sleep with Hypnosis, just in case. Now, boy, how shall you be punished for misbehaving?"

He can't move. 

Not when he's laying down in this hard-to get up position, at her mercy, and with only one arm to maneuver.

"I was wondering what you would do, coming in so boldly with that arm of yours," her finger trails down his chin, to his chest-- and coming to a rest on the arm brace. "Did you think you could defeat a group of people with just your Pokemon?"

Her finger inches closer again, coming to Luce's chin to lift it slightly.

Her eyes drift to the scarf-- and she uncurls her fingers, shifting it under the fabric to tug at it. Luce's blood runs cold, and he flinches so hard he may as well have been screaming out to the world.

_Don't touch me._

But he can't move. He's frozen in place, eyes blown wide in fear and sour, sour panic in his throat. He can't speak. _He can't speak_.

_Get away from me._

He wants to slap her away but he forgets his arm is the only thing balancing him up, so he shoves her just a little and falls back, his head knocking against the cold floor.

"And oh, you didn't even try to hide how much my Zubat scared you," she teases, both hands at her chin now as she rests her face on her knees, "you're so cute. You're trembling from just this. Got some trauma there?"

He tries to shout for his Pokemon. They may be under Hypnosis, but a good shout should wake them up, right?

No.

No, he can't speak. Why does he keep _fucking_ forgetting that?

Right, whistle. He can whistle, that's the loudest noise he can't naturally make but- but it hurts to do that. Because it uses his throat and his throat can't do that much and he's already used it twice but--

\--he tries but he can't. He's shivering too much. He can't focus enough to get the whistle out of his lips.

Mars giggles.

"Well, cutie, that's fine. We're almost done here, anyway," she stands up, her smile still on her face. A Glameow and another Zubat makes itself known by the desks, and she waves away two of the grunts by the door. "And once I'm done, we'll _all_ be out of your hair. That's what we all want, don't we?"

His lips purse, and he bites down.

He doesn't move even when she leaves to supervise the plant owner. They're done in almost ten minutes, she laughs and giggles about something Luce doesn't listen to-- and then she leaves the room.

She shows up again a moment later, crouching down to say her cheerful goodbye. She lifts a Poke Ball and Luce snaps out of his dissociation to realize it's an Electivire, charged in and out of its ball with sparks. She's even holding it with a glove.

"Interested now, cutie?" she says.

Luce lunges, but misses as she jumps away.

"I'm supposed to blow up the plant now, since we'd rather not be traced, but that's fine," Mars says, "you wanted to be a hero, didn't you? So I'll leave this place intact."

 _Oh, don't mock me!_ Luce doesn't say it, but he glares, snarling wordlessly.

"Hey now, I'm doing it out of mercy, you know. I'm just interested in you a lot," she says. She crouches down and pats his head twice-- then dodges when Luce swipes at her. Unfazed, she chuckles, "Get stronger, okay? Then come fight me again."

And she jumps out of the window, onto a Yanmega-- and waves back.

Luce watches, in muted horror-- as she _leaves_.

(Just like that?)

With nothing but her Pokemon and the clothes on her back, having done her deed and trashed the entire power plant of its workers, robbing it of all is electrical energy for at least a good while, and...

...and Luce can do nothing but watch.

(Is he really this pathetic and weak?)

Remembering something, he runs out of the room. Dashing past the hallways, he speeds down the stairs and into every room he could find, until he finds the front door.

And there isn't a single Plasma grunt left, inside the building.

(When did they leave? Was he so useless he didn't even notice _that_?)

* * *

There's a noise, a count to three, and a loud crash of something shattering inward. Luce jumps, surprised-- but he looks over and finds a group of trainers, Hikers, Collectors and Battle Girls at the door.

They drop their battering ram, a huge log of wood held by two Machoke and a Medicham.

A very familiar Youngster runs in screaming, "COME ON OUR YOU GALACTIC BASTARDS!" and a pair of twin girls echo beside him, raising both their arms in declaration, "GALACTIC BASTARDS!"

"Strange. They don't have guards here, unlike the ones in the meadow," the Battle Girl says, poised for battle. "Is this a trap? Someone round to the backdoors!"

"Someone's there!" a Hiker booms and Luce all but scrambles in a panic.

That makes everyone's attention go to him, and someone yells loudly, commanding his Meditite forward. "Reveal yourself!"

Luce has a second to panic, then the Meditite is already in front of him. He braces himself for a hit-- but it doesn't come.

Chimchar roars, surging forward with a swipe of something angrier than just Scratch.

_(When did Chimchar wake up?)_

He lunges forward, flings the Meditite back, then kicks off the wall and kicks the Meditite off the stairs, before perching on the ledge and growling angrily at the intruders.

"Someone's there! It's an enemy!"

"Meditite, use--"

"--wait wait wait!" the youngster's eyes widen, stepping forward quickly to stop the rest of the Pokemon from charging forward. "That's not Team Galactic! That's the young'un that went ahead of us! Right? Hey, big brother? That you?"

Luce keeps a careful eye on his Chimchar. This is the first time he's seen him this enraged-- when did he wake up and follow him? It wasn't fainted?

Luce almost feels guilty to have left them back in that room. He should've run to them first thing, hugged and made sure they were alright, before anything else. Leaving them out like that just isn't what a trainer should've done.

So he slips down, knees weak, sitting on the step to put himself in the view of everyone by the stairs.

Chimchar glares at the crowd a little longer, but jumps into Luce's lap, worriedly surveying him, looking desperately for any signs of an injury.

"It's him!" the Youngster says, relieved. He races to the stairs, looking around as he goes. "What happened to the Galactic guys that were here?"

Luce isn't sure if he knows sign language but he signs it anyways, **"they left."**

"They're not here?" a Battle Girl asks. Seems like she knows sign language, so Luce turns to her gratefully.

 **"Power's gone. They ran,"** Luce signs sharply, tiredly leaning against the wall. He points upstairs, **"the guy is alright."**

"Wait, what'd he say?" a-- Karate guy? _Are you a Karate guy_ \-- steps forward, looking confused. "Can't you just talk?"

He gets elbowed in the gut and goes tumbling down the stairs.

"Apparently they're gone," Battle Girl says, "go check out upstairs. We should find the girl's papa up there."

"They're gone? Really?"

"Boo! That's a bummer. Should we send some backup to the meadow, then? Though I reckon they're done chasing the goons out by now."

"Yeah, someone get the police before they're out of sight."

"Right."

"Galactic! Galactic!" the twin girls cheer, "we're gonna hunt for Galactic!"

The Youngster gives them the side eye. "Right, I'll go get them back."

"What about the rest of us? Patrol for anything they left?"

"I guess," Battle Girl waves off the Karate guy, reaching a hand over to help Luce up. "Skim the building for anything, even a Zubat if you need to."

Luce hesitates for a moment, letting Chimchar sniff skeptically at the offered hand before clinging to his shoulder with hesitance, still glaring in hostility but not agitated.

Seems like it approves of the aid, so Luce then takes the hand and gratefully nods in gratitude, to which the girl nods back in response.

The crowd splits into their new roles, and Luce walks up to find another trainer, a Breeder, laying over Psyduck and the power plant owner with a first aid kit beside him.

"Is this Psyduck yours? I gave it a Potion," he says, gesturing at the soundly sleeping Psyduck laying by the desk.

Luce smiles in relief, reaching down to caress it over its head.

"How's the girl's papa?" Battle Girl asks, getting quite straight to the point.

The Breeder smiles in assurance, "his level of exhaustion is quite worrying, but it's nothing a Heal Pulse and a few days of rest won't fix. I can't say for sure, so we'll need the Nurse Joy to make a proper diagnosis just in case."

Returning Psyduck to his Poke Ball, Luce feels a soft hand at his cheek.

He turns around, and Chimchar's signing something.

**"Always?"**

His heart broke a little. Because this encounter's made it very clear that _no, they're not alright_. They have to get stronger, whether they like it or not.

 **"Always,"** he signs back, and he hugs his Chimchar close to him, and doesn't let go for a long, long time.

* * *

Seems like Hypnosis, Confuse Ray, and especially Confusion are really not moves you should use against a human, because your brain waves get confused for a long while after it, and unlike a Pokemon's physical stature, humans just don't cope well with it.

(Just a little, he wonders if Mars is okay, but at the same time, he wants to think she deserves a few days of this lethargy for her crimes.)

Luce spends his next few hours feeling like a narcoleptic, and eventually he's led back to his dorm, Chimchar by his side and everyone hushedly thanking him for his efforts and wishing him a good rest.

He spends the next few days in and out of slumber, and finally makes his way out around dinnertime. He gets his next dose of Heal Pulse for his arm, gets the cast taken off for a shower, and has it back on in moments.

He adjusts his scarf around his neck, places his cap in the crown of his head, and heads downstairs. He slots Chimchar into the healing machine, and Psyduck is... still asleep upstairs. Of course it is.

The Center lobby is full of natural wind rather than air conditioners, probably to match the vibe of the town. Luce doesn't mind it at all.

He's greeted with a hug around his waist.

"Mister Big brother! You're alright!" it's the little girl, and thank god, she looks so happy, "Papa's awake too! Thank you so much for saving him!"

Luce pats her on the head, noting that a few eyes were on him, but more of acknowledgement than of skepticism.

"You see, after we came back here, everyone just STORMED the meadows! We chased away the ugly spacemen!" she grins, almost proudly, "and then the big sister brought other people to papa's power place and then KABOOM they were gone!"

That's a very weird rendition of what happened. But Luce chuckles, rubbing her on the head almost in muted embarrassment.

"Oh, and Papa says we can go get dinner together!" she cheers, and Luce balks, "there's a place by the meadows, and--"

"Now now, you're overwhelming him."

Luce looks up to notice the power plant owner, wearing fresh clothes too. He smiles warmly at him, and Luce nods back nervously in greeting.

"I still have a lot to thank you for, back there."

Luce shakes his head-- _he barely did a thing._ Just tried and nearly crashed the whole situation, that's it. He doesn't need their thanks.

"Well, I don't believe I've caught your name," he says as the girl unlatches from Luce and comes back to her father's side.

At that, Luce reaches for the stylus in his back pocket, clicks around his Poketch for the writing pad, and writes down.

"Lucy!" the girl declares after looking for a moment, and Luce _flubs_.

After his third attempt at fixing her pronunciation goes to waste, Luce resigns himself to being Lucy for the rest of his stay in Floaroma.

He guesses he can have dinner, at least. He's kind of broke anyways, so he'll take what he can get, if only for courtesy's sake.

It's a nice, quaint town, not unlike Twinleaf. Crusted by greenery in a way that made everyone's moods lift, everyone always seemed three times nicer in these places.

The difference between Twinleaf and Floaroma, though, was probably that Floaroma was full of tourists and trainers, whereas Twinleaf was out in the countryside.

The little girl shows him the Combee, their culture of spreading honey on sweet trees, and the crowd of people that were obsessed with the rare Pokemon that usually gathered around the honey.

He even had the opportunity to slather some honey, and was dragged into a one-sided promise with the girl to come back in the morning to check on it.

Luce finally crashes into his bed at about ten, which is-- not that late, but he's a kid, let him have his sleep schedule.

Psyduck pats at his knee-- oh, she's awake? She ended up watching the house for all of the day, so it must've been boring, if she wasn't just sleeping it off.

 _I'm okay,_ he thinks to himself, smiling as he pats Psyduck on the head, watching her squirm away, assaulted by another headache, _yeah, I'm just tired._

And Psyduck huffs, glancing at him in consideration. She takes a hand off her head to tug at the blanket, waving her other hand around to suggest sleep.

Luce pauses for a second before his heart drops in shock.

_She understood me?!_

Come to think of it, something like this happened back at the Windworks too. Psyduck had taken action accordingly, despite him never vocally assigning orders.

Psyduck turns around, tilting her head aside.

Luce looks around for his Pokedex.

**[Psyduck, the Duck Pokemon. Overwhelmed by enigmatic abilities, it suffers a constant headache. It sometimes uses mysterious powers.]**

He blinks-- come to think of it, Psyduck and Golduck can learn a fair deal of Psychic moves. To some degree, perhaps more than a pure-water type Pokemon should, they have a quirk where they just resemble a Psychic type in certain ways.

So Luce beckons his Psyduck over, and raises his first three fingers from his thumb, tapping it on his head right by his brow.

Psyduck gives him a confused gaze, and Luce explains, **"name,"** before pointing at the Pokemon as an elaboration.

Psyduck blinks up.

Luce thinks he's not imagining the amused huff she gives.

* * *

Chimchar stands on the brace, reaching over for Luce's free arm. He starts squishing Luce's palms again, sleepily blinking as he does so.

Luce chuckles soundlessly.

Leaving Chimchar overnight on a healing machine has apparently given the little chimp some sort of separation anxiety. Guess Luce isn't doing that again anytime soon.

He sets a hand on his neck, breathing out into his scar and letting the warmth waft up to his chin. 

If he lost focus for a second, he could still feel Mars' hands on his face. He could still hear her voice, tantalizing, saying something that probably didn't mean much in the long term.

He looks at his Poketch.

There's still time before he needs to meet up with the girl, so he turns toward Route 205, Chimchar running by his side.

They make it to the Windworks with plenty of time to spare. 

They had a citizen volunteer service for night watch, in case the grunts come back. Especially now that the front door was busted, they needed to wait for morning for the guys in Fuego Ironworks to come by and fix it up for good.

"Who's there--!! Oh, it's you."

Seems like the Karate guy was posted at the front door for this hour.

"What do you want? Come to join the watch?" he asks.

Luce hadn't expected to see anyone here, so he scurries to find something to write on-- he decides to just use his Poketch, because the sun isn't up yet and it can light up in the dark.

 ** _I want to check inside,_** he writes.

Karate guy looks troubled for a second, then he shrugs, rubbing the back of his head. "I guess it's fine if it's you. Be careful."

Luce nods. 

The power plant was ripped of electricity, but it powers on wind, so it'll come back up soon.

For now, the generator is still strained and not used to operating on such a low energy level-- so the plant owner suggested letting it have a night to recharge before trying to operate it again. Which leaves the town without electricity for a night, but that's of little substance to a very nature-oriented city.

Mornings were cold even in the summer, and nights are breezy with the amount of greenery around. The tourists may complain, but the trainers involved and the locals were quick to roll their eyes on them.

"Be careful, okay? Keep your fire buddy close by."

And Chimchar chirps, happy to be acknowledged. He jumps up to Luce's shoulder as the boy heads into the power plant, surprised by how dark it truly is.

Chimchar, acknowledging the darkness, lights his tail fire a little brighter, staying careful to not burn Luce along the way. Luce smiles and pats him on the back. The little extra heat is no trouble, and he pads around carefully inside.

Heading upstairs, he maneuvers around carefully until he finds the room at the end, where he'd encountered Mars with the Power Plant Owner just a number of hours ago.

Chimchar chitters curiously, and Luce leans in just a little.

Luce paws around the room. The light switch doesn't work, so he continues roaming. He finds computers-- thick, old-fashioned PCs, lining the desks.

He mildly realizes his trip is probably wasted, because the power's out-- but he leans toward the monitors and presses the power button. They made sure to switch off every main power plug this evening, so it shouldn't...

...it did.

Unexpectedly, it turns on, and Luce panics, fumbling to press it again-- he wouldn't want a short circuit explosion on his face-- but the screen flickers on, alerts that it isn't connected to a system well-- and then, a string of words clicked to life.

_**[The bringer of wars... Your target is the energy of the power plant. The bringer of contentment... Your target is the Pokémon statue of Eterna City.]** _

His eyes run through the text, flickering in and out of its sentences.

_**[The bringer of aging...]** _

It stays black this time, the screen properly turned off. Luce isn't going to try and turn it back on-- he really doesn't think that would bode well.

He knows the rest of the message, anyways. Or at least, Cece knows.

Chimchar chitters, leaning in closer-- but Luce straightens, making sure Chimchar doesn't jump down. He shakes his head, and makes his way to leave. 

* * *

"Who's there!"

Luce nearly squeaks when the loud voice calls him out. He'd barely made it out when a guy in a trenchcoat zeroes right in on him in alarm.

"Hey hey, that is none of your business," Karate Guy comes to the rescue, putting himself between them. "Who are _you_ anyways?" 

Luce makes his way out, Chimchar hissing at his side. 

"Well--" the man-- Looker, Luce recognizes him-- clears his throat. He retrieves a police ID from his police, showing it off promptly. "I am part of the International Police. I have heard of suspicious activity from Team Galactic in these parts, and thus I have come running." 

_Just as late as in the games, huh..._

"So, the Team Galactic. Where are they?"

Karate Guy scoffs. "Well, I'll believe you about the police thing," he says, sounding very put off. "But Luce here," he makes a point of setting an arm on the boy's shoulder, "chased those goons away _hours_ ago." 

That surprises the detective. 

Reasonable, because first of all his arm is in a damn cast. Second of all, Luce did _not_ chase them away. And most of all, Luce is a _kid_. Logically speaking, it is weird, dangerous, reckless, insert synonym here, whatever-- for a kid to do this much. 

"You have?" he says, in awe. Then his funny look makes Chimchar growl at him in hostility, so he recomposes himself. "Very well, I'm impressed. I must thank you-- and all the rest involved-- for dealing with the situation."

He actually bows his head-- which, Luce has to admit, is quite humble of him. He didn't think the eccentric detective character had such a line in the games...

(No... he really shouldn't think of the people like that. )

Karate Guy hums at that. "I'll extend your words," he says with a scoff. Evidently, the man isn't pleased at the aspect of the police not being there when it counted.

Luce nods neutrally, however. 

This was a world of insane destiny and all that, after all. If anything, the logical thing to do here was to reprimand _Luce_ for charging in without a plan, but no one had done a thing yet simply because it turned out fine. It just didn't make sense and he felt empathy for Looker's efforts above all else. He has to deal with all this bull. 

"I am currently in the process of pursuing Team Galactic," Looker reveals. "May I take a look inside to check for any remnants of their trace?"

"Sure, but you'll have to bring a light," Karate Guy says. He legally can't restrict Looker from making an investigation, after all. 

At that point, Luce excuses himself. He was going to be late to Honey Tree viewing.

"Ah, hold on there, kid," Looker calls out. He reaches into his pocket and steps forward, depositing something into Luce's hands. "You are a trainer, are you not? Then please have this." 

Luce takes it, initially intending to return it-- but he finds himself looking at a Vs. Recorder, and he pauses in surprise. 

He completely blips past the explanation of how it works or why Looker even has an extra to give out, because Luce was too busy trying to figure out how or when this even comes into play in the games-- ah, he can't remember. Oh well, it doesn't matter. 

"In the case that you ever meet Team Galactic again in the future--" Luce winces at that. _Well wasn't that a charming suggestion,_ "--then I would ask for you to allow me to look upon those records, for future reference. Is that fair?"

Yeah, fair enough. The Interpol would probably make better use of battle data like this than Luce ever could, after all. 

He has a feeling he'll be meeting Looker a lot more often now. 

"Take care, kid! No more sneaking into potentially dangerous buildings, alright?"

_Ah, there's the lecture._

* * *

He finds a cafe open in this ungodly hour-- apparently, honey tree enthusiasts make good dawn business-- and orders a warm honey tea to go with his Journal writing.

**_[Bringer of wars-- Mars, (_ ** **_Ares_ ** **_.) -- Valley Windworks.]_ **

**_[Bringer of contentment-- Jupiter. -- the Statue(?)]_ **

**_[Bringer of aging-- Saturn. -- ??? (Veilstone? Lake Valor?)]_ **

He didn't catch the last part of the message on the PC, but he's got a general idea. He went to check just to make sure it's not different from the games, after all.

It's still there, and it's a huge trace to their future plans. They should really plan better than this, if they're going to be some criminal organisation plotting to play god. He wonders if Cynthia was in Eterna because Looker saw all this coming.

Especially the second line. 

_Your target is the Pokemon statue of Eterna City._ That's just a straight up direction, they couldn't even phrase it cryptically? Even the 'power plant' is alright, there are plenty of them in Sinnoh.

"Big brother Lucy! C'mon! You'll love to see this! It's a Vespiquen!"

He lifts his head, casually closing his Journal. He supposes he can leave contemplation for another day, and focus on building all the connections you're meant to gather on a journey.


	8. "Give these thugs a lesson, please."

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Barry makes it back to Jubilife, stumbling upon a suspicious Interpol agent who insists he isn't a suspicious Interpol agent. 
> 
> Then he fights some Team Galactic grunts.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Barry arrives at Jubilife, to immediately crash into someone.

"Whoa, what-- oh, sorry, old guy," he gets up, finding he's knocked over an older man in a brown trench coat. Kind of like Professor Rowan, but younger, and Professor's trench coat looks nicer on him.

"Old guy-- I'm not that old!" the man yelps, offended, "watch where you're going, young man!"

"Okay," Barry dusts himself off, extending a hand forward, "sorry, mister. Anyways, what're you doing out here dressed like a suspicious detective, sir?"

And mister suspicious detective makes the most exaggerated freaking out motion in the world, waving his arms around and sputtering frantically, "no! How did you know I was a secret agent working for the International Police?!"

Barry stares at him.

The secret agent working for the Interpol recomposes himself, standing tall. "I digress. You're an impressive lad, I can tell. You saw through my disguise immediately!"

Barry is entirely baffled at this point. He doesn't even know what to say-- and Barry doesn't know what to say? That's a statement alright. 

"Now that my cover is blown, allow me to introduce myself," he straightens his coat, and Barry looks at his watch, wondering when he can leave. "My name-- ah, no, I shall inform you of only my code name. It's Looker. They all call me that."

Barry jumps at the chance, "ah, nice to meet you Mister Looker! My name is Barry. Now if you'll excuse me," he steps away, only to feel a hand at his shoulder pulling him back.

"Hold on now, windy boy. You are a trainer, yes?"

Barry groans externally, but he turns around and finds something being tossed into his hand. It's a digital pad-like device, and there was only one option aside from the settings-- something called Battle Videos.

"Here, it's something called a Vs. Recorder," Looker tells him, "it's a device that helps you record your last battle, so you may look upon it afterward as reference."

And Barry's eyes light right up. _Didn't dad have something like this?_

"It's been a hot item recently, so most of us have one to study suspicious activity!" Looker explains, "however, a few of us retired recently, so this is still fairly new-- if you wouldn't mind a second-hand item, I believe you can make better use of it."

"I'll take it," Barry says, before really thinking. 

He clicks into the battle videos-- it's blank, so either they've wiped the data or this guy's on drugs. Either way, it's working right. 

"Thank you so much for this, Mister Looker! I appreciate it."

But this-- he can make use of this. Dad's taught him a _ton_ about them, because dad himself had to slowly master it in his endeavour to become Tower Tycoon.

Barry's wanted one of these for _forever_ and he can't believe he's getting it from a suspicious secret agent interpol whatever. He ain't looking a gift Gallop in the flaming mane, after all. 

Looker clears his throat. "W- Well, I'm glad you like it. I'm currently investigating suspicious activity from a certain group that's said to dress like spacemen, so if you ever come across anyone like that, do allow me to view the battle data, aye?"

Barry raises an eyebrow. "A certain group that's said to dress like, uh, what?"

"You heard me, boy."

Barry nods. "Okay," this guy is high on something and Barry isn't interested in it. "If I ever uh, meet someone like that. I'll show it to you if I ever see ya. Sounds like a good deal."

Looker hums approvingly, before very awkwardly excusing himself, in a tongue twister of 'if you ever see me, don't talk to me because I'll be on the clock, but you can talk to me if you have information, and talk to me if you're bored or I'm bor-- I mean, I'm not bored. Just don't talk to me if possible, but you can if you want.'

Barry waves at him, still unable to decipher what in the living Darkrai just happened.

Breathing out in a sigh, already exhausted, he heads straight toward the exit of Jubilife City, toward Route 204. He lifts his head to make sure Starly, his Starly, is still overhead somewhere, and walks on.

-

"Barry!" Dawn calls out, almost desperately, as she spots him in the distance.

Professor Rowan stood protectively over Dawn, and Dawn clutched his briefcase to her front, looking troubled. The two figures before them were dressed in black and white uniforms, their hair in a standard bowl cut-- and their expressions were eerily stoical.

"What's going on?"

Dawn rushes over, hiding behind Barry if only to get a safe distance between her and the suspicious grunts. Barry keeps a firm eye on the grunts as their attention turns synchronously to him, sending shivers down his spine.

"They were threatening me. They want some of the Professor's research, and..." Dawn whispers, and Barry's gaze flickers over with anger. "Sorry. Professor didn't bring his Pokemon along, so it's a relief you came by."

Barry nods.

Professor Rowan turns to him. "Glad to see you, Barry. You came from Oreburgh, I suppose? So you've gotten your first gym badge? That's incredible."

Barry nods again, stiffly. _Is this really the time to be--_

"We repeat."

Barry jumps as the grunts begin to speak. Their robotic tones are flat, authoritative, and their eyes are wide and empty. Barry can't help but liken it to a pair of porcelain dolls.

"Professor Rowan, hand over your research findings on the energy of evolution. This will be our last warning," they say, one of them turning toward Dawn and Barry, raising a Poke Ball in a challenging motion.

Rowan groans, turning over in annoyance. "Now, you guys have been getting on my nerves for the last--"

"Initiating battle formation one. Releasing Pokemon," the grunt speaks over the professor, releasing a Glameow in Barry's direction.

Barry leaps back, and Dawn clings to his arm to avoid falling. They regain their balance, and the other grunt releases a Stunky. Professor Rowan, alarmed, steps back.

"Hold on now--"

"Professor, sense won't get through to them!" Barry hollers, "we'll have to fight. Dawn?"

Dawn steps back a little and raises Turtwig's Poke Ball. She meets Professor Rowan's worried gaze, but she nods, releasing Turtwig. "C'mon Bonsai. Time to fight!"

"Screech."

"Growl."

Their hands shot up to their ears immediately as Turtwig is shot right down with two devastating stat reducers. Barry keeps Piplup in its Poke Ball.

He set his fingers at his mouth and whistled loudly.

"Sarge, Double Team!" he commands before the Starly even descends. Four Starly clones whirl down to the field, swiping through the Glameow and Stunky. "Quick Attack!"

Starly knocks them back, and returns to Barry's arm.

Dawn turns to Barry, before nodding. "Alright, Bon. Razor Leaf!"

Stunky staggers, falling on its face. The Pokemon quickly get up, looking irritated. The leaves slice through the grunts' clothing as well, but they don't even wince.

"It's obvious we have the upper hand here," Barry tells them-- but they don't falter.

"Thief," they say at the same time, and the two Pokemon leap forward, appendages before them.

In a panic, Barry grabs Dawn's arm and drags her out of range, yelling "Double Team!"

Dawn staggers but keeps the briefcase behind her. At the same time, she commands, "Bon, Withdraw!"

Glameow's claws scratch uselessly at Turtwig's shell, and Stunky's attempts to locate the real Starly ends in vain.

"Dawn, use Razor Leaf when you see a chance," Barry says, and Dawn looks over, confused at the vague sentence before Barry's commanding again. "Sarge, get up high." Barry yells, as one lone Starly among the clones swing high into the sky, flapping its wings strong, "Wing Attack!"

Starly cuts in right between them, striking them back before rising to the sky, bringing its tailwind forward.

Dawn knows this is her cue. "Bon, Razor Leaf!" she says immediately, and the Razor Leaf that spins out of Turtwig is captured by the wind, swiping right into the targets.

Glameow and Stunky fell back, and were too dizzy to get up again.

"Nice!" Barry says, raising a hand for a high-five. "That was a great one."

"I had to carry the battle, you idiot," Dawn says, annoyedly returning the high-five, "you could've attacked a little more."

Barry pouts, "don't be such a stickler for the details. Razor Leaf is a field move, so it's more efficient, ain't it? All the Double Teams prevented damage, y'know!"

"Sure," Dawn sneers.

Barry glares. Dawn scoffs, turning away.

The grunts returned their fainted Pokemon to their Poke Balls, robotically returning it to their belts. Rowan sets a firm eye on them as they step toward each other.

"So?" Rowan challenges.

The grunts look at each other, and turn back to Rowan. "Further orders have not been given for this situation. We will concede," they say.

"Good. Now leave," Rowan huffs.

Surprisingly, they just nodded, almost as if in politeness, before marching away in tandem. Dawn hugs the briefcase to her chest, warily watching them as they went.

Barry reaches warily into his pocket-- and his heart drops.

The outside zip of his bag, leading to his TMs case, is open.He checks it quickly-- and one of them is gone. 

He swirls back toward the grunts. "WAIT!"

And as if they've realized their jig was up, they take off running. Barry swears out loud, breaking out into a run after them.

"Barry, hold on! Don't--"

The city is busy at this time of the day. Two turns away and they're gone-- the streets were filled with citizens and tourists and the teal blue hair was nowhere to be seen.

"Geez, Barry! What's with you?"

Barry whirls his head around a little longer-- before reaching into his bag to find that-- Return. His _Return_ TM is gone.

"They stole it," he mutters.

"They stole something?" Rowan asks, "shouldn't've let them off the hook..." he grumbles, "I'm really sorry, Barry. Was it anything too important?"

Barry lets it stew in his head before releasing it as a sigh. _It's fine_. He wasn't planning on using it anytime soon, anyways. He can always buy a new one from the... _no, that isn't the point. It's gone, for whatsoever reason, and_...

"No... it's. It's fine," the words are harder than he thought they would be. "At least your research papers aren't gone. Yeah."

He checks his pocket, and the Vs. Recorder is safe in his pocket. Small mercy.

"Are you sure?" Rowan asks, unconvinced.

"Yeah, it's the Technical Mach you gave us, uh," Barry looks away, ashamed, "I'm really sorry I lost it."

Rowan seems surprised. "Is that so? That's no matter at all. If you still want one, I have a spare in the lab--"

"--no, it's fine," Barry insists. Then a little guiltily, he admits, "the truth is, Luce broke his yesterday. So we weren't planning on using it anyways."

Rowan hums at that. "Well, I guess I can respect that..."

"Obviously it isn't fine!" Dawn snaps at them, seemingly having been watching the conversation and disapproving of every line. Both males flinch at her shout. "Thievery is thievery, whether it's something you want to use or not! And you're obviously distressed by it, B. You got something stolen? Well, let's go get it back!"

And she drops the briefcase by Rowan's feet, grabbing Barry by the wrist. He has a second to realize it's happening before Dawn is marching him through the crowd, yelling for anyone that's seen a stupid spaceman looking bowlcup head in this direction.

Her words.

Barry sends a pained look at Rowan, who looks back with a resigned gaze.

"Hey Dawn, really. We lost em, I'm fine, so let's give up!"

"They can't have gone too far," Dawn sneers, letting out a Shinx from her Poke Ball. "Now get your Starly out, we're searching! Let them take advantage of you like this and you're _never_ gonna make it in the world, Barry."

"What are you, my mom?"

"If I need to be!"

"The heck's that supposed to mean?!"

Just a little, Barry is happy that she cares. But he'll never tell her that.

-

They don't find them.

Maybe they surfed off to Canalave, or they had a flier, or they had disguises, but they were gone with the crowd and no one seems to find them anymore.

It's weird. Even with a Shinx's nose and a Starly's bird eye view, nothing came up. As the sun set, they had to give up.

Upset and exhausted, they found a room in the Pokemon Center to stay for the night.

"So? What were those guys, anyway?" Barry says, exhaustedly taking off his scarf and letting Piplup out. Starly perches by the window, pretending to sleep. "Those, uh, spacemen looking people."

Barry looks down to Piplup at his feet-- and he's surprised to find that he had run off to Dawn's feet instead, clinging to her boot. 

That was unusual, and sort of... sad, like a little rejection.

(It's not that dramatic, Barry, he reminds himself. Admiral just likes Dawn, that's it.)

(Definitely has nothing to do with the fact that Admiral acts exactly like Luce, especially in the silent treatment part of the news.)

Professor Rowan hangs his coat by the door and sighs. "Those guys were from Galactic-- they're an energy company, heard of them?"

Dawn furrows her brows, "the ones that drone on about finding a permanent energy source to innovate the structure of the world or something?"

Barry's officially lost. He knows nothing about them-- heck, a power company? They have a strict dress code and haircut, for god's sake. If anything, it's some sort of cult.

"No one knows much about them, other than the fact that they have a building in Eterna, and another in Veilstone," Rowan explains. "They don't make their research public knowledge, but if it's still active, they've got to have _something_ under their belts."

Barry hums.

(Professor Rowan has a lab and commission issued by the Pokemon Association, relying heavily on annual reports of his research to keep their confidence in him.)

(Similarly, if such a big company had a base in _two_ cities under the premise of business, there's got to be a reason why the association hasn't booted them out. They've got research of some form going on, and the association legally can't do anything.)

"That doesn't mean they can steal _your_ research!" Dawn says, fuming, her hands still gripped on the bedsheet. "They even stole from you, Barry!"

Barry groans a little again. It's because he wasn't paying too much attention to himself when those two Pokemon used Thief... But why would they steal Return?

"It obviously wasn't intentional," Barry says, "they were trying to steal from you, but the attack hit me instead. Not blaming you, I'm the one that put you behind me. Just saying we can be at least a li'l grateful it's not anything else."

Dawn bites her lip and fidgets in her spot, "you have a point, but..."

Professor Rowan puts a hand on her head. "Let's put this incident behind us," he says. Sitting by the desk, he takes out his notes to do his work. "So Barry, our talk was interrupted. So you got yourself a Gym Badge?"

They appreciate the change in subject.

Barry shows off his Gym Badge, though he doesn't brag about it. Dawn looks at it in awe, even carting Piplup around to congratulate it for its efforts. His prideful Piplu had the gall to look (dis)honestly pleased by the attention.

"So his name is Admiral, and Starly is Sergeant, right?" Dawn asks, setting the penguin on her lap. At Barry's affirmation of _'Sarge for short'_ , Dawn sets Piplup down beside her sleeping Turtwig and inches closer to Starly, "hi, Sergeant. Can I ruffle your feathers?"

Starly looks over for a moment, and simply looks away.

"Not a friendly guy?" Dawn asks, in a teasing manner.

"Just pat 'im on the head, he loves it," Barry assures her. And surely enough, Starly leans into Dawn's hand when she scratches his head, and Dawn blooms into an excited smile.

Barry turns his eyes to Professor Rowan, who had dismissed the kids to focus on his work. A paw at his feet draws his attention, and he looks down to see Dawn's Shinx asking for attention.

He leans down to pick it up, and the Shinx giggles. Oh, who can resist smiling at this?

"That's Tempest," Dawn informs, "I fed her a berry and she just wouldn't stop following me," she chuckles. "Adorable, isn't she?"

Barry shrugs, rubbing the lynx on the head and under her ears, earning a pleased coo, "well, she's one happy little Shinx for sure."

The next while is spent in relative silence.

Dawn writes in her Journal, and Barry studies the Vs.Recorder.

Dawn sits beside him to look it over together, but they don't say much about it when Barry zooms in on the moment _Thief_ is used, marking the short moment Stunky came too close, but Barry didn't even notice.

"Part of the journey, Barry," Rowan tells him around his shoulder. "One day, it'll be behind you."

And Barry looks at him, letting the words spin in his chest.

He breathes out.

"Course," he grins, "when I see them again they're absolutely compensating for that! And I'm going to be calculating the interest!"

Dawn bursts into laughter at that, and Professor Rowan gives him a fond smile.

Piplup approaches him carefully, and he scoops the penguin up in his arms, hugging him close in a resolved way, trying to hide how desperate he is for the affection.

(Admiral doesn't tear away.)

Barry smiles. "I can do better," he knows.

-

Barry rouses a few hours later, when Piplup's foot strays a little too close to his face. He brushes him away, rolling over to get a little more shut-eye.

The sun isn't up yet, so he checks his Poketch (ugh, four?) and groans.

He notices movement in the dim light, and peeks over the top bunk to the bed under him-- noting that Dawn's awake, seated by the edge of her bed, fiddling with her fingers.

Shinx is in her lap, asleep.

She's making rhythmic signs, and Barry quickly realizes they're the ABCs. He watches for a while as she struggles on the Qs and Rs, tries again, and again.

He watches her for a bit, then he rolls over and goes back to sleep.


End file.
